- OK, did Michael kill Fredo in pt. II? Are we supposed to know it, by the time pt. III starts? I don’t remember. I’m all confused now. Annotated family tree, anyone? please?
- If there ever was a Godfather, pt. IV, taking place in the 90’s, Anthony would definitely make his gay coming out in it. Of course, I realize announcing to your dad you won’t be a lawyer and will embark on a fruitless artistic career is sorta the 80’s equivalent of a gay coming out.
- I too want a wise sicilian uncle I can turn to, when I need answers to intricate questions about life and work. Preferably one who knows about PHP and mySQL.
- Gee, is the acting bad in this episode.
- Good thing hot cousin sex will save practically anything.
- It probably won’t save Christmas (good point Andy). Especially if taking place under the family Christmas tree.
Category: Humanities
Manga Sucks
First off, let me officially declare Geek Week closed for good: no more stuff about databases, microformats and other cool pet projects, for a while.
Instead, I’m gonna bring a crowd pleaser to the important part of my readership who is currently saving on their weekly imported Poki consumption, to fulfill their teenage wet-dream of a pilgrimage to the fantasy land they have come to associate with Japan in their head. I know they’ve been reading ever since their google search for “japanese upskirt pictures” or “pokemon furry porn” got them here.
Today’s topic is: Manga.
Mangas can be summed up approximately thus: they suck. They suck big hairy giant mutant robots balls.
Now I know I’m causing a lot of grief among the otaku crowd here. At least those who haven’t already gone back to humping their pillows dolls or building that lifesize gundam robot…
Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Mid-Week-End Round-up
Agreeably low-key, the first half of my week-end was filled with so much interesting stuff and encounters with cool people, that I went starting this entry convinced we had to be Sunday night already…
Today’s earthquake was easily the strongest I have ever felt in my life. All in all, I don’t think it was much bigger than previous ones, but its epicenter being very close made a difference. Seems it registered an upper 5 (on the Japanese scale) in some areas near Tokyo.
Being on the first floor of my small two-stories apartment building, all books and loose objects safely tucked into their shelves (I learned my lessons from previous times), I didn’t have a lot to feed my imagination on and wasn’t overly worried, past the initial surprise (feeling the earth move when you haven’t even had your first Gin Tonic of the day, will always get you at first). Seeing the importance of train disruptions and reading other blogs afterward, made me realize it didn’t just feel strong: it was strong.
In other news, Friday screening party of Bondi Tsunami at Superdeluxe was a blast!
The movie is very much worth seeing. An interesting mix of edgy MTV-style editing (well, the good sort of MTV-style editing) with typical tongue-in-cheek multi-culti humour, mixed in with long bouts of pure surf psychedelia. Only serious reproach: could have been made a tad shorter. Shooting for a feature-length was, imho, a bit ambitious, as some of the latter scenes tended to lack the tight editing that made the beginning a truly good indy movie.
But overall: good-humoured story-telling, cool music, casual vibe in the club during and after the screening all contributed to an awesome evening.
Hako wrote a really cool entry about Friday night in her Mixi diary, copied here with her permission, for the benefit of non-mixi users. Can’t really be arsed to translate it at the mo, but heartily recommend you put in the reading effort if you have some basic kanji skills: it’s quite funny and an interesting read.
Actually glad we didn’t elect to follow the group to Odaiba for an all-night rave party, despite the promise of cool music and a comfy tent if we needed a rest, I’m quite happy being back in my bed for a long night sleep now. With hoping that I don’t end up flattened by the second floor crashing on me during the night.
（葉子ちゃんはミクシィの日記に映画で書いてった。本当に面白くてぜひ読もう：）
昨日はお友達に誘われて、六本木の映画の試写会に繰り出してみた。そこは地下のクラブでフレンドリーなかんじ。
製作はオーストラリア人のとてもキュートでファニーな女性。おっぱい柔らかったぁ〜（笑）オーストラリア人の観点からの日本人サーフトリップムービー。もちろん舞台も大自然オーストラリアで、出演者もビーチでナンパして集めただけあって、ナチュナルで入りやすい。いわゆる等身大的なことこがわりやすいのかも。ストーリーはバックパッカーで旅をしてりゃ、どこにでもありがちなこと。そこに、ヴィジュアルで彼女テイストの芸者や侍テイストを加え。さらに微妙にボブやダヴやハワイアンテイストをミックスした、ゆる〜い音中心の映像とのコラボはかなり飛ばされます！お酒で一服キメてご覧になるのがおすすめです（笑）
特に旅好きな方にはどうぞっ！
最後に製作の彼女に日本のサファーについて、質問！
クール！セクシー！スケベ！
だそうです（笑）
久々に色んな国のヒトとお話できました。
刺激になります。抽選でオーストラリアチケットがあたるはずが、
何故か、t-シャツとキャップが！
ラッキ〜♪
と、単純なわたしでした。
詳しくは。。
http://www.super-deluxe.com/schedule/event0507JP.html#anchor22♪ー 葉子 ー♪
In Tokyo, this week…
A few cool things coming up:
Wednesday (07/20) – Japanbloggers Meetup – Zest, Harajuku
A group of people from all horizons and many countries, brought together by a common love of blogging, tech gizmos and cheap somewhat reasonably priced beer.
Newcomers always warmly welcomed.
Thursday (07/28) – Laurent Garnier – Yokohama Museum of Art [Note: I got the date wrong initially. This is taking place next week, not this week. Thanks to Martine for pointing that out!]
Reels of silent early-century B&W movies, with live instrumentation by worldwide famous, veteran techno DJ and producer: Laurent Garnier.
Sounds very experimental, but the man is insanely talented, should be interesting.
Update (also playing on 08/06):
August 6 – 22:00 – 07 – 06:00, 2005 – Laurent Garnier – at Spacelab Yellow, Tokyo, Japan
French legendary Acid House pioneer, playing live at Yellow.
Friday (07/22) – screening of Bondi Tsunami – Super Deluxe, near Roppongi Hills
An indy surf-movie about a bunch of crazy Japanese and their adventures in Ozland…
Miss Tracey blogged about it a few weeks ago. Turned out last week-end that my friend, the awesome Stacia, is going steady with the lead actor… It’s a small, tiny, star-studded, world, after all.
今週の面白なイベント：
水曜日 (07/20) – Japanbloggers Meetup – 原宿のZest
毎月にブログを書く人がバルで合う。外人と日本人も来る。誰でもきてもいい。
木曜日 (07/28) – ロラン・ガルニエ – 横浜美術館 [注意：さっきに日付は間違えた！来週ですよ。]
有名なフランスのDJ／producer、Laurent Garnierは古いな映画間中ライヴ曲を作る。彼は８０年のMandchesterで始めた。可笑しくて面白いでしょう。
金曜日 (07/22) – Bondi Tsunami （ボンダイ津波） – Super Deluxe Club, 六本木ヒルズの近く
オストラリアでサーフィンが好きの日本人は車で旅行する。本当に楽しみ。友達は映画の役者と一緒にです。先月にTraceyは見に行った ブログで 書いた
About Laurent Garnier:
Musical Contest: the Results
Contest is Officially Over!
I know I said I would post the solution this week-end, but things didn’t go as planned. Far from the comfort of my home and my little computer on Sunday night, I did try to sneak out of bed to send a quick post, around 4am, but was sharply reminded of House Rules regarding computer use, by the most evil phosphorescent glare, this side of the Pacific. I figured I’d rather be one day late on my promise than end up with a ritual katana neatly inserted between shoulder blades.
Without further ado:
The Answers
By order of appearance in the entry (I’ll leave it up to you to match translations and text).
- La Traviata: “Noi siamo zingarelle” (“We are the gypsies”) – Verdi, on a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
- Carmen: Acte 1: “Quand je vous aimerai?… L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (“Love is an undomesticated bird”) – Bizet, on a libretto by Meilhac and Halévy (based on the novel by Prosper Mérimée).
- La Vie En Rose – Original lyrics composed and sung by Edith Piaf. Though the only version I have on my hard drive is the cover by Grace Jones.
- La Traviata (again): “Ah, fors’è lui che l’anima”
- Chan Chan – Compay Segundo – Calle Salud
- Le Tourbillon – sung by French actress Jeanne Moreau, written by Cyrus Bassiak: this song is featured in François Truffaut’s famous movie Jules et Jim.
- She’s Lost Control – Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures (1980)
- Everybody Knows – Leonard Cohen
- Il n’y a pas d’amour heureux – Georges Brassens – Les Amoureux des Bancs Publiques
- Die Lorelei – Schubert (many other versions) based on a poem by Heinrich Heine
- Kyrie – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Requiem: Κυριε ἐλεησον means “Lord, have mercy!” in classical greek. What? No, I’m not joking. I did mention greek in the rules, did I or did I not?
For your ears only, and very temporarily, I have uploaded all the ones I have on digital support, here. But hurry up, as I’ll probably remove these very much not-copyright-safe files within a day or two.
The Winner
All right, now for the man who shall be getting our unrestrained admiration, as well as a bottle of that nasty paper glue solvant the locals refer to as “alcohol” (comes in a cute bottle) [a picture will soon follow]:
Well, there is no surprise and Mr. Tuitui (helped by family) is the lucky winner. With an impressive 77% result (perhaps a bit less, as I suspect he only spotted the Traviata once, but let’s not be picky) or 10 tracks out of 13. Being French helped, seeing how it was heavily represented with four tracks. But then again, English would have been just a bit too easy.
Congratulation, Mr. Tuitui, my people shall be contacting your people and arrange for delivery. Preferably on a drier day than today.
Another One?
I think I may, when I have a sec, do another one. I’ll try to spend more than 10 minutes this time and make an entry slightly less nonsensical. In fact, perhaps you won’t even notice it’s there. Keep your eyes peeled.
The Game – Only 3 days left!
Remember that contest I started a while back?
You know: “Guess the songs and win a sample of refined Japanese spirit, straight from my own personal cellar“…
You thought I’d forget? I most definitely haven’t. Neither have a handful brave, who’ve been communicating to me all along their level of advancement through various means and methods.
So far, most contestants are staling at a puny two or three songs. And by most, I mean all. Save for two gentlemen who have made their strides to within close reach of the goal: the favorite, Mr. MacTuitui, seems well positioned to get that bottle, which might save me on postage stamps, seeing as we happen to be sharing residence on the same island in the Pacific.
Mathematical Riddle
In the spirit of sharing the pain and suffering, I figured I’d make an entry dedicated to the kind of stuff I currently spend my days doing. Well: apart from giving you gruesome details of my current state of health or finding new, inventive, ways to scratch my ass.
Yes, brace yourself, for today is about Mathematics. Physics may come in another post later this week.
Probabilities
Since, I’m confident none of you, the nerdiest included, really want to hear about quadratic integration and advanced set theory (basing this guess on the fact that I would myself be much happier not knowing anything of their existence), I’ll talk about the only mathematical field remotely interesting to the common: Probabilities.
Unfortunately, probabilities are a very minor part of my curriculum, in what is probably my personal gods’ way of telling me: “see that finger? well that’s all you get, so stick it wherever you see fit and don’t hope for anything better”.
Mathematics, past early college level are fairly useless. The farther away, the more completely, utterly, devoid of potential real-life applications they get. And I don’t mean merely for those who later go on working full-time as stunt doubles in the San Fernando valley: even advanced engineering hardly ever requires mathematical tools that go beyond a first or second year university program, the rest is all for the mere glory of it. That leaves you with research and teaching as the two only career somewhat approaching full use of the curriculum.
Since no institution sane in their mind would ever let me anywhere close to a research lab (least of all: pay me to do so), while the degree of contempt I hold for my fellow humans happens to peak around the age group that frequents universities, it is safe to assume that I won’t ever be needing most of the stuff I am currently expected to master.
Lost in this ocean of tediousness, the barren islands of semi-useful fun that are Probabilities and Game Theory are the most paradisiac coasts you’ll ever lay an eye on. They let you actually glimpse into real uses for some of the wildly abstract mathematical constructs you’ve been using for years… That’s pretty unheard of for a student of Mathematics…
Even if the gist of it is: you would have to be a complete moron to ever lay a chip in a Vegas casino and, in the long run, we are all dead. If you squint really hard, you could nearly imagine that hypothetical situation where an idealized version of yourself, self-assured and composed, would step forward amidst the panic-stricken crowd of your fellow plane-crash passengers, and proclaim loudly: “We may as well save ourself the jump in these shark-infested waters: our chances of survival regardless are below 1% with a 97.48% probability factor. I would know: I am a mathematician.”
Random Thought in Passing
Nevermind that he wrote the all-american novel and was the icon of a generation…
One, and only one thing makes F. Scott Fitzgerald the coolest writer there ever was:
He married a girl named Zelda.
If anybody reading this was legally given the name Zelda at birth, please contact me: I think I may have to marry you right now.
But I was cool…
Chicago jazzman Oscar Brown Jr. died last Sunday.
He wasn’t perhaps sitting at the top of my personal pantheon of Jazz, but one of his track most definitely is.
But I was cool has to be the most hilariously infectious tune ever howled by a talented musician this side of the Funk belt, and the only way you should spend your next 2 minutes 55 seconds.
And until my bandwidth freezes over, or the vindicative Gods of Copyrighted Music kick me in the karma nuts, I’m gonna put the track for download on my server: please be nice and buy the album, it is well worth it. The trial sample is right here.
“Ten books we should BURN! burn, burn, burn!”
Accordion Guy picked up this tragi-grotesque list of “Most Harmful” books of the century on Human Events Online, a site that panting hardcore conservatives usually browse with a single hand…
Hmmn, awright… I’m not even sure why I bother discussing a list that places Darwins, Kinsey, Beauvoir and overall, any socio-political thought somewhat left of fundamentalist wingnutry as “harmful”…
Yet… I thought I would point out that these “19th and 20th century” contributions all but pale in comparison to a certain piece of writing from twenty centuries ago.
Now, I am serious here: assuming somebody can give me anything other than “They don’t agree with us” as a systematic criterion for inclusion, I presume we would have to take in account killing and massacring of innocents as an important part of the selection process. In which case, call me biased, but I would dare venture that 2000 years of bloody history all seem to point at that bestseller featuring the life and teaching of that famous bearded hippie.
Not only was the man a dangerous subversive commie with strong anti-capitalist positions and a heavy past as a free-trade obstructionist, but his book went on to justify a good half of all blood baths that took place in recorded history… Tell me about harmful liberal propaganda…