I hate when that happens!
"He was thought to be the oldest man in Tokyo -- but when officials went to congratulate Sogen Kato on his 111th birthday, they uncovered mummified skeletal remains lying in his bed."
"Gothic Circus" hits a nice swaggering stride, despite taking 45 seconds to actually get started (I trimmed the track in Audition, 'cos I just... can't... take that shit anymore).
It really is a bitchin' little novel.One of the shock effects of reading The Spy when it was published must have been the near-nihilism of its message. It is unremittingly dark...
The second remarkable aspect of The Spy is the skill with which it is constructed and written...
Also, for a relatively short novel a tremendous amount is included. The ellipsis between chapter two and three is a model of how a simple change of point of view can eliminate pages and pages of laborious exposition.
On a line-by-line level, furthermore, the prose is limpidly succinct and evocative. For example:"A girl performed a striptease, a young drab girl with a dark bruise on her thigh. She had that pitiful spindly nakedness which is embarrassing because it is not erotic; because it is artless and undesiring."Or:"The airport reminded Leamas of the war . . . Everywhere that air of conspiracy which generates amongst people who have been up since dawn – of superiority almost, derived from the common experience of having seen the night disappear and the morning come."
The director, solidly built, with long black hair, and a shaggy goatee, looks like a hippie bricklayer. He calls Hizumi over and they discuss an action he wants him to make in the next take.and also:
Prepping for take two, sweat is carefully dabbed away by the girls and make-up is retouched.
"Guess who I saw?"and then (at 8pm, while Hizumi shoots his water-splashing scene):
"In the toilet"
"Karyu. He was pissing next to me"
"Was it... awkward?"
The other members stand in their positions, on stand-by. Here since early morning, they're getting a bit stir-crazy themselves. Karyu lies on his back in the center of the set staring at the cieling and playing his guitar absentmindedly. Zero, equally bored, sidles up and slowly jams the base of his bass into Karyu's crotch. Karyu doesn't seem to mind.There's also pages and pages of narrative style observational interviewage...:
"13 is our first try at drum machines. Instead of playing the drums live and recording the drum line, we recorded sounds for each art, then lined it all up on a computer, created the rhythm and then laid the other instruments over. We also sampled a bunch of different things. For example we tried banging a metal ashtray and tapping on a file cabinet to make up the drum line," explains Karyu while banging on the wall behind him.... and straight-up Q&A, with special sections on the gear:
Zero: When I go on stage I take two 5-string Tricksys in ADADG and ACADE tuning. I also take one 4-string Amaze in standard.And much much more!
I'm not gonna pretend to have even known this guy existed, but R.I.P. anyway, dude.To all supporters of Zill and Moran,
As of July 23rd, Zill of Moran has passed away due to deteriorating physical conditions.
We apologize from the bottom of our hearts for all the worry and trouble this has caused all fans and everyone concerned.
The wake and the funeral is planned to be held among relatives only.
We give our most heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has supported Zill, even then as Minami and Saburo.
Thank you very much.
The "Toxic" singer, 28, has been telling her friends that Mel Gibson, 54, has been pouring his heart out to her -- confiding that he fears for his sanity and is convinced he’s destroyed his once-hot career.Be wery wery quiet, Mel's huntin' Britneys! "I'm so lonely baby! Life is so hard! You're so smart and give such good advice!"
The In Touch magazine quoted a friend of Britney as saying that they speak on the phone all the time, usually late at night.
thoughts:
My sources say that not only is nobody subscribing to the website, but subscribers to the paper itself—who have free access to the site—are not going beyond the registration page. It’s an empty world.Some people compare this experiment to the Wall Street Journal but that's a unique paper -- you can ostensibly make money from the info inside, so individuals and businesses see it as an investment and are happy to pay.
The wider implications of this emptiness are only just starting to become clear. A Murdoch and Fleet Street veteran with whom I’ve been corresponding about the paywall reported to me on his recent conversation with an A-list entertainment publicist: "Why would I get any of my clients to talk to the Times or the Sunday Times if they are behind a paywall? Who can see it? I can't even share a link and they aren't on search. It’s as though their writers don't exist anymore."
Gahh! So sad. :(In 2004, Tsuchiya announced her engagement to model and actor Joshua Niimura. Joshua worked in the same modeling office as her. On November 19, 2004, Anna's first child, Sky (澄海, sukai), was born. In July 2006, it was announced that Tsuchiya and Niimura were getting a divorce. In May 2008, Niimura died of heart failure, aged just 25.
Eriko Sato, a glamour model who once had a bloody brawl with Tsuchiya involving folding chairs which caused Tsuchiya to fracture her orbital bone in early 2000s, has also stated that Tsuchiya seems no longer violent and looked like a different person.
Q: What actions by men make you suspect there’s an ulterior motive? (Sample size = 740, female)Awww, the toilet move isn't slick!?
Rank Score 1 He soon starts touching me 100 2 When it gets close to the last train, he pretends not to notice 76.9 3 When he walks me back to my house and asks if he can use the toilet 75.2
Remember when you guys submitted questions for Despairs Ray a couple weeks back? Well... BAM!
pSKY: Your single “Love is Dead” has some similarities to the song “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive. Is it homage or a coincidence?more at purple sky...Karyu: We went to a few dance clubs in Europe after our shows, and really liked the atmosphere the music created. I wanted to use that in one of our songs, and it’s possible I heard Dead or Alive’s song at some of the clubs. I didn’t even know the name of it until we finished “Love Is Dead” and someone pointed out that it sounded similar.
pSKY: So it’s not that song directly?
Karyu: No, we just wanted to make a dance-style song like one you would hear at a club!
pSKY: You guys won’t end up like Pete Burns?
HIZUMI: I’m not gay!
pSKY: I think he’s a woman now.
HIZUMI: He’s not completely a woman, right? Karyu isn’t really decided on what he wants to be yet, but...
We want try!It's not the recipe that makes this beer so special; it's where that recipe was found: a Neolithic burial site in China.
It's "the oldest-known fermented recipe in the history of mankind."
Dogfish Head will brew about 3,000 cases of Jiahu ... at $13 for a wine-size bottle..."Probably, all beer thousands of years ago — to our modern palates — would have tasted spoiled," Calagione says. "In fact, in a lot of hieroglyphics, people are shown drinking beer using straws because they were trying to avoid the chunks of solids and wild yeast."
You're a selfish person...
I think this is the first time I've wanted to hit you with all my might.
Even when you were guilty of doing something, I thought, "It's Daisuke so it can’t be helped," and I laughed it off and forgave you...
What happened to you?
You should have called me at the last moment, idiot.
Surely, there were a lot of hardships... sorry.
I’m sorry.
A day ago we were talking through email about your band.
You told me that you were about to make a good album.
Hurry up and let me listen to it.
You were always a clumsy and risky person... I was worried.
I don’t feel any emptiness or actual sensation. Even now, I imagine you saying, “Are you surprised? Sorry.” And it feels like you’ll just pop up and... I can’t help but feel that way.
At this point I’d forgive you, so please appear... Daisuke.
As expected, living is very hard.
From now on, I will think of things that I can do for you.
Depend as much as you want on the person you loved
and wanted to meet the most.
Please sleep soundly.
Let there be no more suffering...
Because I'm going to go meet you today (By this i think he means at the funeral)
Can you tell us what stopped your last show in Bercy (Paris, France)?
Yoshiki: The concert was canceled three times. There were problems with management (I wanted more money and they didn't think that was fair, so I tried running them over with my car, but hurt crashed, and I hurt my neck and back again... so) the last problem was my surgical operation for July 28th. I had the operation so I’d be able to do the concert, but management canceled the event without even telling us. We showed up that night and there was no one here, we wandered around outside til a security guard shooed us away! We’re here today to show our respect to the French fans we disappointed when our shows were canceled several times. And/or to promote our shit again.
Between X JAPAN and your solo careers, you seem to be really busy, yet you don't actually create anything new. Do you have spare time away from music?
(Yoshiki makes an exasperated noise and passes the question to Toshi. Everyone in the room laughs.)
Toshi: Yes, I drink French wine. (laughs) I'd like to visit Napa Valley someday, but I can't find it on your maps.
Yoshiki: Me, no. I don’t have any free time, and actually that’s why my girlfriend and I broke up. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was sleeping with her beautiful brother.
You decided to remake videos for Endless Rain and Rusty Nail. Why did you choose these two songs?
Yoshiki: (shrugs and laughs) I think it’s simply because we are immobilized by the fear of failure. And that's how rock n' roll is made, right? By not taking risks. Uh I mean we like them. We’re also finishing the recording of the English version of Tears 'cos, like, translating the lyrics and then re-recording six whole minutes of vocals takes us, like, twenty months, because we're such fucking disorganized, petrified sluts.
Between 2007 and 2008, you released two DVD box sets comprised of old concerts, and you also announced the release of the complete version of the Dahlia Tour Final and Last Live. When will that be, is there a specific date?
YOSHIKI: Yes…soon…(laughs) ... as soon as the ones we released already get bought. The stores sent all the unsold units back after they sat on the shelves for a year and a half, untouched. There's cases of 'em stacked up in Toshi's dining room. Wanna buy one?!
They're celebrating their tenth anniversary this year but man, so little to show for it!
...Am currently reading The Last Assassin and got to the bit where our intrepid hero checks into the "twelfth" floor of a hotel in NY. Gadzooks man, did the "Christians" teach you nothing? LOL I worked Executive Protection for six years after getting out of the Foreign Legion and we all learned never book a hotel room on the 1st floor, or over the 10th because there's not a fire truck in the world has a ladder can get higher than that. (In 3rd world countries I'd personally never go above 6.) What are we to do with you?You won't see Dan Fucking Brown or your precious Harry Potter Lady or the Illiterate Stephanie Meyer getting fanmail that smart!~
A few minor critiques on the description of the Japanese sword in Kuro's office. Daisho were not common to the kamakura era. These swords tended to be longer, and it was only later (the late 1400's vs the 1200's) that it became customary to carry two swords. One would not display a sword bare bladed, especially one of this value described ($170k is pretty steep) unless it was behind museum glass, rather it would be in a shirasaya: a plain wood resting scabbard. The saya or furniture could be displayed as well, as some fittings can be as valuable as the sword.
With regard to the polish, it is not a mirror polish as this would be considered not aesthetically pleasing. The idea of the polish on the sword is to display the characteristics of the steel, the grain of the ji, the crystalline structure of the hamon. A good japanese polisher brings these qualities out, and enhances them, and in turn these are used as indicators of the smith and school of origin.~
If you fly someone with a pneumothorax because of the lower pressure on the plane the gas in the chest will expand possibly converting a small clinically in apparent air collection to a large collection under pressure in the chest. The air in the chest will push on the veins emptying into the heart and prevent the heart from filling and you die. This is called a tension pneumothorax. It's a real problem when I transport my patients with blunt chest trauma. Even if a pneumo is small I always throw in a chest tube before flying and I always carry a "dart" which is a very large IV catheter so I can quickly decompress the chest in the air.
When you threw poor Dox on that plane you could have killed him! Those broken ribs easily could have had a pneumo associated with them. He was very lucky to have survived your carelessness!!! For shame ;-). Since the big oaf is growing on me I'd appreciate it if you were more careful with him in the future.
Clan of the Cave Bear - Neaderthals adopt a Cromagnon (Daryl Hannah) who grows up to be smarter and prettier than them. Could be cool, right? But the pacing was slower than glacial, requiring constant FFing :(
Black Dynamite - genuinely engaging, mostly for the little things (Black Dynamite finishes yelling at his aunt who interrupted his kung-fu practice, but is unable to hang up the phone; drive by guys jump out of car, driver apparently forgot to put the car in park so has to jump back in and hit the brake, etc). :)
Chloe - Very French. Went a little off the rails in the last ten minutes, requiring the viewer to assume/believe that expensive call girls are psychotics. :\
Matchstick Men - Saw the big switcheroo coming, but still a cool con flick, beautifully shot. Someone should make a con-game movie where no one gets doublecrossed, because that would actually be a surprising twist for once. :)
High Kick Girl - Cheap japanese karate movie wherein even the fight scenes sucked. :(
Zack & Miri Make a Porno - awk-WARD! :\
The Crazies - awesome plague flick, logical and tense and fun, and whats-his-face (see also Justified) is probably my new favorite actor, in that I'm now operating under a "if he's in it, I'll see it" guideline. :)
