review: bsg 4x14

BSG! I am so pleased you are not dead!

This was a fun little scene.



And FINALLY, Starbuck isn't moping around like some degenerate shoegazer band anymore.



And I wanna know what happened to this guy.



Mom and Dad and the kids.



"I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle."



Arrrr!

Rootin' tootin' guns a-blazin, yeehaw!

rating: :)

Studio 360 in Japan

Studio 360 is a decent hour-long podcast that, about 75% of the time, will be moderately interesting, and the other 25% of the time will discuss or introduce me to something pretty cool (Mike Daisey's existence [mp3] being the most recent).



This week and next week, Studio 360 is in Japan [site, w/ mp3s]. Yes, there's a lot of the usual simpletonian cliche-blather ("it's ultramodern! it's ultratraditional! there's kimonos and miniskirts! noise and silence!") but there's also a decent amount of insight. (I'm only halfway into it

Pico Iyer's writing never thrilled me (neither did Donald Ritchie's), but the full interview (only 1/3 of which is in the video above) discusses marrying japanese chicks and not speaking the language, so, hey, two fer two!

“Japan’s economy is falling off a cliff," most blame Yoshiki

bloomberg.com:

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Japan headed for its worst postwar recession as factory output slumped an unprecedented 9.6 percent in December, unemployment surged and households cut spending.

The drop in production eclipsed the previous record of 8.5 percent set only a month earlier, the Trade Ministry said today in Tokyo. The jobless rate soared to 4.4 percent from 3.9 percent, the biggest jump in 41 years.

“Japan’s economy is falling off a cliff,” said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo.

So does this mean more US/EU j-rock tours ('cos the dollar/euro is stronger?) or less (because fewer bands/labels have the yen start up a US/EU tour?)...

I went to pull $500 outta my Japanese bank account yesterday and god damn if the exchange rate wasn't better than the $1=¥100 mark for the first time since my first visit in '96!

Fun with Captions

"Did you proofread this speech, Foot?"

Lost 5x01 & 5x02

Thank god Lost is continuing to remain lively and engaging! Forgotten how much I enjoy this show. How do you not smile when Sawyer is onscreen, or anytime when the beautiful blue sky, green trees and white sand are shown? This show is pure escapism, and fun, and smart, and exciting, and continually captivating. :)

Fire! To begin / whipping dance / of the dead!

Gotta say though, abc.com dropped the ball -- tried for THREE DAYS but could not watch the new episodes there, with their advertising, like I would've liked.

C'mon ABC, you did a great job delivering content last year, don't fuck it up now!

tv review: "Lie To Me" 1x01

I never heard of this show, but saw Tim ROth and went, "ooh, Tim Roth!" and watched it beginning to end even though I had way more important shit to do.



Like most mainstream television shows, it holds your hand and assumes you've got the mental wherewithal of a distracted eight-year-old, and it does the annoying CSI-esque zooming-noise/extreme closeup/GOTCHA! moments about thirty times more than is absolutely necessary, and the interminable musical montage at the end (which was a cool trick for about a year, back around 2002?) sucks.

But there were elements of this show that I enjoyed sufficiently to recommend it; not just the "ah, I'll have to remember ~that~ whenever the police/boss/wife comes knocking!" bits, but also the barbs of humor planted here and there, the interesting characters and relationships going on (that extreme honesty guy, the poor daughter's boyfriend), that sorta thing.

Gots t' be hard to be an actor on that show, though. ("Cut! Your lip AND your eyebrows twitched! DO IT AGAIN, NO LYING THIS TIME!")

Buuuuuut... I doubt I'll stick with it for more than a handful of episodes; you can already tell that every episode is gonna be THE SAME THING. Law & Order can get away with that, but no other show really can.

rating: :)

From My High School French Textbook, Part I

"Grandmother has forgotten that after you milk the cows you're supposed to take it inside and not give it to them to drink."

I-V-vi-IV

I'd pay money to see this "song" performed live by any given local rock band.

Also, is it bad or good that I did not recognize at least 75% of the songs and at least 50% of the artists. I mean, I have never even heard the NAMES or seen a PHOTO of some of those musicians.

Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action.

Chronicle Books:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Classic Regency Romance --
Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

By Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

$12.95

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action.

As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton -- and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy.

What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers -- and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead.

Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans.

LOL Oh no! Fucking. Brilliant. Even if it sucks, I'm still buyin' it, just to keep on a shelf!

review: aural vampire | "EP2" (2008) & "EP3" (2008)

aural vampire
EP2 & EP3
avex/itunes
$2.97 & $.99
2008

Everyone's favorite really long-blonde-haired Japanese goth girl with a masked friend is/are back with two more "EPs" -- November's EP2 (three songs) and December's EP3 (one song).

"I do not think EP means what you think it means."

EP2 starts with an updated and much-improved version of "Innsmouth," with sounds a touch like the Tom Baker-era Doctor Who theme. Still, it's a little too by-the-numbers for me; doesn't sound nearly as mindblowing as Death Folder, the 2005 single/EP against which all other Aural Vampire releases will forever be judged.

Track 2, "69 Balloons," harkens back to the old Ministry NWO-era days, with a dirtier, heavy-ish-er, driving beat. Unfortunately, it drones on a bit and wears out its welcome around the halfway point. It sounds a bit like a demo -- lifeless, unshiny, too slow... The soundstage needs expanding and Exo-Chika (v) needs to sound less drugged. I do dig the underwater bit at 4:20, though.

And then there's yet another version of "Economical Animal Superstar," about 10% slower than the excellent version on the aforementioned Death Folder single. With slightly different voices on the drums, and some bongos (?!) added in, and... you ever seen ladies dress up their dogs in stupid costumes, then take them for walks, and the dogs wear an expression of pure undignified indignity? Yeah.

Meantime, EP3 is just "Border of the Dead," a decent four-minute track but one that, again, never lifts off the ground. Pleasant lead vocal, nice enough hooks in the melody, but they don't combine into a force to be reckoned with or anything -- they're not gonna make you stamp your foot down on the accelerator as you drive down the highway or anything. Could be good enough for puttering through a mall parking lot, though.

And sadly, there's no official album art for these EPs -- just the same tired old photo of the band -- so naturally, I had to make my own. But it doesn't help! This is boring shit. Not aggressively bad, but passively and tiringly bleah.

rating: :\

Now you can have hair like Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover

Went to Mei's Salon on 3rd for a trim yesterday, flipped through the current issue of Nylon as I waited. My eyes fell upon the words "...Now you can have hair like Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover / we sent product to Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover / got Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover's feedback... " just as the hairdresser WAVED A HAND IN FRONT OF MY FACE to get my attention and I stood up all confused because... does anyone want hair like Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover? Why are you waving your hand at me when an "excuse me, your turn" would have sufficed? Should I even be getting my hair done in a place that encourages Drover-like hairdo's? Where am I, what year is this?! [stumbles into traffic]

Why Magazines Die

sorethumbsblog:

1. A 40% sell-through may sound horribly wasteful to you (it is), but that’s considered a sales success to us. …think of what our financials looked like when 60%+ of the copies we paid to have printed (roughly $1 per issue) get thrown out.

The printer prints the magazines, then they go to a variety of distributors, shippers, and wholesalers to get moved all around the country. ...we might as well have used the Pony Express with crippled horses. ...a lot of copies never make it to the stores — they stay on the trucks somewhere because the entire distribution system is archaic. ....there’s no money in fixing it.

And with the copies that make it to the stores, some of them never make it to the actual shelves, because very few retailers care about magazines (they’re not high-income items). And if they’re lucky enough to make it out of the back store room, there’s no consistent system to how they’re displayed on newsstands. That hot copy of EGM’s Street Fighter IV world-exclusive could be hidden behind Hot Women on Hot Rods Magazine or the latest Crazy-Ass Crosswords!…and no one would ever know.

...have you walked into a store and couldn’t find the newest issue of your favorite magazine, but a three-month-old copy is still sitting on the shelf? A lazy sales clerk may see “EGM” there and not know that particular issue’s expired and is supposed to be replaced. So then that outdated issue doesn’t sell, our newer issues don’t get a chance to sell, and we lose circulation and revenue.

Actually, some sales clerks do care about magazines…enough to keep them for themselves. I used to work at EB Games... A new shipment of magazines would come in, and we’d rip them open to read for ourselves or to take home…before a customer can even see them. Periodicals weren’t in the system as real inventory, so no one would ever know if they ever got sold or not.

So now here’s Ziff Davis Media…paid for 10 issues to be printed and shipped to my particular EB Games store, and maybe five of them will actually make it to the shelf after the employees raided the box. If three of them get bought, that’s 30% efficiency right there.

2. Advertising: Magazine ads deliver vague, immeasurable impressions. Yes, you can offer circulation numbers, and third-party services study how many eyeballs hit each issue, but they’re not the same as a banner advertisement, where you can literally count every person who’s on that page or who has clicked through that ad.

3. The Internet: Why pay for an issue or a subscription when the web has so much more stuff to read/watch/listen to…for free?

Remember Cameron started a VK magazine back in like '03 (it was in Tower Records, before they went bankrupt)... and then there was that JrockInkish magazine, which sorta became PurpleSky, and now Laura's got Askew... and I've contributed to 'em and hoped for the best 'cos I like readin', I like writing, and I like j-rock...

But every time I heard about these projects I always thought "Do they know something I don't know?" because what better way to lose time and energy and money than to start a CD store or a new print publication, right?

BSG sucking harder

GINGIVITIGRRRRR!!!

Watching cancer victims off their meds is way better than those epic space battles, rapidfire dogfights, and life-or-death human/robot ground skirmishes from the first few seasons. [nods]

Seven of Nein!

Took two tries, but eventually I got Windows 7 running decently. After eight years with WinXP, it takes some getting used to, but overall I like it. Except torrents don't seem to work very well, which could be a dealbreaker. And abc.go.com wouldn't let me watch Lost -- it said "XP or Vista, IE or FF only!" Even User Agent Switching in FF3 didn't work.

If GTA4 gives me a hard time, it'll be back to XP for me.

(I swapped out my WinXPy C: drive this morning and put in an empty one that was laying around, and slapped Seven on that, so it'll only be a five minute disk-swapping process to go back to how life was 24 hours ago.)

review: kei | "vesperbell" (2009) & "the primary" (2008)

kei vesperbell CTCR-40283/84 avex trax 2009/01/14 ¥1890/¥1050

kei the primary CTCR-40281/82 avex trax 2008/11/19 ¥1890/¥1050

This Kei guy (from Kannivalism, who I never listened to, and Baroque, who iirc had a few mellow, almost mainstream hits that I liked appreciated) has some obvious talent. I'm spinning the six songs strewn across these four discs (the more expensive versions include dvds, but are missing one track each; the CD-only ones have all three songs) and being reminded of both Hide and The Beatles in turn!

"4-Letter Word" is peppy and upbeat guitar rock, competent but not necessarily captivating. "Pitiful Emotional Picture" is sort of Inorany, with a mix of violin, clean electric guitar, and scribbled techno beats, and against all odds I sorta like it.

Kei's "Vesperbell" PV.

"Vesperbell" is incredible: straight outta Sgt. Pepper's. ADORABLE vid too. (Esp @1:55! This video may make kindergartners the new woods!)

"Oriental Cancer" is an uber-tenchoey, uber-japonisme-istic instrumental with some speedy, beautiful... koto? Shamisen? Guitar running through a koto/shamisen pedal? It's like being in ~the future!~

"The Blueroom" brings us back to that Inorany/Sugizoey techno-beat-mixed-with-piano vibe, but feels a little rambling and lost. And "The Primary" brings us back in Hide-with-Spread-Beaverly style to the uplifting guitar pop-rock.

Not even remotely heavy, this mini-cornucopia is a valentine for music lovers.

rating: :)

Renegade Yakuza Oshibori Distributors!

The Tokyo Reporter:

It seems a steady supply of towels is also a must for sex businesses like soaplands or “fashion health” emporiums, for wiping up the mess after a romp on the massage table. The towels are collected and wind up in the wash together with the ones from food and beverage services.

“We’ve been humiliated when an izakaya complained its customer found a hair from down there in his oshibori,” an operator tells the reporter. “And there was no way we could excuse ourselves when a snack operator’s customer rubbed his hands with a used condom clinging to the inside of his towel.”

Remember that next time you're wiping your hands...

SSD or Raptor?

I'm torn between buying an SSD (mlc or slc) or a Raptor to install WinXP, Win7, and Program Files on. I know some SSDs don't do so well with OSs, and they're still kinda quirky... anyone have any experience with SSDs or Raptors/V-Raptors?

disgraced music icon Komuro admits fraud

AFP:

...During the mid-1990s he was regarded as one of Japan's richest men after selling more than 170 million CDs. He owned Ferraris, luxury cruisers and villas in Hawaii, Bali and Malibu.

But he fell into debt in recent years due to payments to his divorced wife and failures in overseas investment.

A joint venture set up in 1996 in Hong Kong with media magnate Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. reportedly lost Komuro seven billion yen."

Suck it, you greedy cock! :p

disc review: D | "snow white" (2009)

D
snow white
AVCD-31545/46/47 avex trax
2009/01/21
¥1890/¥1680/¥1050

Naturally, D scattered seven different tracks among all three releases, so you gotta catch 'em all to complete your collection, and I know this crap has been going on for three or four years now, but it remains SO FUCKING BOGUS.

And regarding Asagi's cover pics, is he trying to look like a Photoshop advert? You're not an eighteen year-old girl anymore, DOOD!

On to the music:

The title track, "Snow White," is a piano & vocal ballad with a dash of guitars and drummery. I suspect it's the first time a voiceless version of a song has been more enjoyable than the regular song.

Here, it's like Asagi is a tired old mule, tugging unevenly on the sleek new plow that is the music, trying to make the song feel more powerful by "singing more" instead of going with the flow. Couldn't wait for the tug-of-war to end.

The voiceless version, meanwhile, at least lets you feel the relaxing "ahhh" of public restroom urination without some stranger (named Asagi) yelling at you to hurry up while he makes hand gestures in front of his face...

SO. POSEY!

And there's so many superior piano & vocal artists to listen to if that's what you're in the mood for. If this CD were an audio format, it'd be RealAudio.

"Snow White (Another Gift)" is a peppier, upbeat track sounding nothing like the title track; I assumed it would be a rock version of the ballad but if it is, I can't detect any connection. Are the words the same? The key notes in the bassline maybe? Do I care? Does anyone?

If you like the lighter rock fluff D does, it's good enough, I suppose.

The next track, depending on which CD you own, is "What is Going On With the Human" and that is a fucking fantastic title. And the song is heavy, chuggy, de-tuned, dark, moody, and very cool... until everyone pussies out for the chorus, which gets all frilly and lacy JUST TO PISS YOU OFF.

"I'm in a band, but their presence here is ancillary to mine own. Back to the shots of me only!!"

Then there's the three live tracks, "Night-ship D", "Signal", and "Yami Yori Kurai..." -- decent songs n their original incarnations, and full of life -- but here thar be suckery. The live songs are rendered inertly. Flat like week-old Coke. Is it the production? There's no spark; it could be playing is just sloppier because, you know, they're running around on a stage littered with fake cherry blossom petals and tiring themselves out...

And: better versions of these songs are already on last years' Last Indies Tour live dvd, sounding cleaner and more energetic (without being as bitey as the Tafel live dvd)... so, their existence is moot, and so is this entire release.

Time to call it a day, I think.

rating: :(

Another TV n' Movie Review Roundup

lol @ Bret’s “Ah yes, my future ex-wives.” [waves]…
Rock of Love 3, so far, hasn’t hooked me like the last two did; the girls seem even less interesting.

“Oh snap, Kaoru quit Dir en grey?”


In other news, Traitor (2008) was a pretty good thriller, but could’ve benefitted from more action. Guy Pierce I like. The ending I also liked, but they telegraphed the [bus trick] a little too much, ruining the surprise.

JCVD (2008) was a treat. Entertaining, thoughtful… got new respect for Jean-Claude.

And god damn if Saving Private Ryan ain’t a near-perfect fuckin’ film. (Just watched it in hi-def the other day.)

New D & Kei in the pipeline!

review: megadeth | "blood on the water" (2008)

If you haven’t seen Blood on the Water yet, you need to.

It’s shot vividly, edited snappily, no boring shots, everything moving in concert, close-ups on solos, close-ups on Dave’s snarling and Broderick’s smiling and nodding as he, the new guy, beams out perfect, effortless, living and breathing copies of Marty’s classic solos, owning the moment and sharing it with we fans who have long suffered through the Al “Paycheck” Pitrelli years of close-enough fakebookery; Lomenzo banging like crazy on bass, holding his axe aloft like a younger Steve Harris, and Shawn Drover providing perfect, steady beats that powerfully capture Menza’s original brilliance and show-off Shawn’s own…

And a set list to die for, and clear, brilliant audio, and holy crap, I wish this was out as an official DVD so I could buy two copies and lock one in a safe in an underground bunker and wake up to the other one every day.

rating: :)