Thanksgiving wrapup (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way--

-- Sorry! Wrong entry --

Well, let's start with Wednesday:

Pot Luck and a dream
We had pot luck at work. It was an odd sort of pot luck, since I have never had "Thanksgiving" with dim sum, hot chicken wings, and burritos. There were some pies, cornbread stuffing, ham, and I brought mashed potatoes. Sadly, the burritos were not cooked very well, and I got sick. But I spent the rest of the evening talking to molarity about getting a job where I work. I think this can work out. He gave me a ride home, and I spent the rest of the night praying I wouldn't be sick through the holidays.

Thanksgiving Day
I woke to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is a tradition for me. takayla hates it, but I was too sick to watch it downstairs with the cold floor. Later, I tried to start a fire in the fireplace down there, but the wood just wouldn't catch or stay lit for long, and the house ended up being all smoky. CR actually had to work, so he left for a 4-hour shift and said it was busy from open to close. I guess people really want their coffee every day.

After he got off work, we went to Anya and Brian's house for Thanksgiving, and had a good time there. There was takalya, CR, and myself with Anya and Brian's parents. I found out about Anya's zoo of pets as a kid, while the parents played "who had more seizures as a child." Anya's dad is a wanted man in Switzerland (wouldn't pay a speeding ticket), Delaware (wouldn't pay a toll), and the McLean Family Restaurant (something about a tip). The food was excellent, the company entertaining and fun, and I hated to leave.

Black Friday
This is tradition with me, and I got to spend the early part of the day with CR and aksident at Fair Oaks Mall. It was pretty crowded, which went along with the 10.6 billion sales day the news later reported. I know the economy is in the shitter, but the mall wasn't vacant by any means. I got a few gifts for people, but mostly I hug around CR and aksident which was a hell of a lot of fun. We went back to CR's work and hung out. I had to leave early (I was on call) CR and aksident walked home when his shift was over.

stodgycat stopped by around 6pm, and dropped off Scarlet. I needed Scarlet's help taking apart computers, and with her help, I was able to disassemble EVERY spare computer I needed parts from and junked. Both her and aksident stayed the night while CR played his new game, "Sonic Unleashed."

DCRG
Saturday, Scarlet and I finished up the computers. aksident had to go back home to babysit her little brothers, but Scarlet stayed for for DCRG. We left for the metro, met Brain and Anya, and went to the DC Armory for a 3-round bout. First up with a the Cherry Blossom Bombshells versus the Northside Stranglers, a group composed of various Flat Track stars from Pennsylvania to Richmond. CBB beat them 47 to 34. Next were two rounds of the DC Demoncats versus the Scare Force One. We left during the final minutes of the game, but it was Demoncats 112 to 94 when I left, I think. This was a massive upset since up to now, SF1 was winning unopposed.

The halftime entertainment was terrible. It was loud, obnoxious, and uncoordinated. It was a series of "MCs" and some small kids screaming rap into a microphone and jumping around. I mean, I am all for free-styling and whatnot, but these people were just bad. What happened to the girls dressed as men and singing Elvis and Chris Issac?

BUT, the crowd was the BIGGEST I have ever seen. I mean, the DC Armory was almost packed full. This is good, because the DCRG needs the cash.

Moon Phase
Frankly, the illness I had a week ago came back when the antibiotics ran out. My throat swelled up again, and I have a lot of trouble breathing. I spent most of the day in bed watching a dozen or so episodes of the anime, "Moon Phase." It starts of slow, but gets pretty interesting around episode 3 or so. Sadly, it's one of those anime shows that get a little uncomfortably close to "Lolita" anime for me. I don't know why this bothers me as much as it does, but hinted sexualization of underage kids always squicks me out. Why can't they just say she's a short adult or whatever? Yeah, yeah... the whole "innocence" thing, but blecch...

I only went out to see my Jenny Craig counselor, who has been on rotation all month while my usual nutritionist is away seeing family in Lebanon. I haven't lost much weight this month due to illness, SAD, and Thanksgiving, but I haven't gained much, either. I have been around 305-309 all month.

But I am really sick today (Monday). I have a doctor's appointment (instead of seeing a clinic, what I did last time) at 11:30 today. Enough with this shit. Posted in: anime , black friday , dcrg , holiday , rollergirls , thanksgiving

Anime USA - Never been (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So, as I said, a few weeks ago, I was only vaguely aware Anime USA existed. I had heard of it, but not known more than it's a local anime con. Then so many people asked if I was going, I got invited several times, and had free room and board. So I went.

All in all, I give the con a C+, but the experience a B. I felt that I was meant to go because it just seemed so... obvious in a cosmic destiny sense. So I just kind of sat around and let things happen. If anything DID happen, it must have been subtle, and years later, I can say, "If I hadn't had gone to Anime USA in 2008... I never would have been a millionaire." I *really* tried to let things happen. I tried to keep myself out in the open, hung out with friends, and generally just "experienced" the con. And I had fun... but nothing wow-inspiring, "holy carp, my life has changed!"

Friday, I left work early and took the Metro down to Crystal City. When the Red Line stopped at Catholic University, a bunch of corn-fed, white bread teens with matching tee-shirts came on and surrounded me. They were part of some "Christ the Lord is Yo Pimp Daddy" group. Okay, maybe they had a different name. But they were loud and fairly typical teens until the train broke down at Rhode Island Ave, which is a stop where a LOT of inner city kids have a bus/rail hub.

Suddenly, these were some scared children. Quickly they circled their wagons and clumped into small tight circles to shield them from Jareel and Lawanda shouting in urban lingo filled with guttural street talk. Think those Children of the Corn were loud? They got nothing on the ghetto crew from NE. I just watched in amusement as I played a line in my head from the original movie "Hairspray," where Mrs. Pingleton said to Motormouth Mabel, "Get away from my daughter you... NATIVE WOMAN!!!"

After about half an hour where I got two possible pickpocket attempts and several solicitations for Altoids ("Kin ah have some of yo' mints, dude? Thanks, yo."), we finally got a train that let me off at Gallery Place where the station platform was so packed, it was difficult to get OFF the train. Luckily, those mint-mooching NE kids were not afraid to be rude, so I let them cut a path which I followed.

When I got to Crystal City, within one block of the directions the hotel, I realized the woman who gave them to me was trying to get me lost. In my attempts to find my way around, I must have passed the hotel 2-3 times, and according to my pedometer, I walked about 4 miles. My iPhone map was unhelpful, since it always said I was in Crystal City, but not which street. During this time, I somehow hurt my foot real bad, probably from strain. Eventually, I found a group of anime fans, who said, "Oh, yeah, it's right around that corner, you can't see it because the entrance faces the other way."

Yep, they were right. Later on, as an added stab, I found out the hotel had a shuttle to and from the Metro. Thanks for that, hotel desk lady. I hope you get a wart on your ass.

I hung out with loquesse and moliarty in the art show when I got there, and then had dinner with cheesy_reads and stodgycat at Matsutake sushi. Then I walked around with them when they went to CVS and the ABC store. Since loquesse was providing me with free lodging, I ended up closing with them when the dealers room and art show closed.

The art show was a niche in the dealer's room which didn't have any walls or any real feeling of a separate element of being an art show. We just looked like another dealer, and since we lacked the huge shelves and brightly lit displays of most of the other dealers, we looked like a sad, home-spun dealer. Paul and Venora were running the show, and loquesse and moliarty helped out.

I was so tired by the time we packed up, I just went to the house. And what a house! Damn! It looked like a cruddy old townhome on the outside, but it was like a TARDIS as far as space went. It was HUGE! Like 4 floors with an elevator. All the decor was very FAHncy and outclassed most of the McLean homes I grew up with. My room was the library with a fold-out couch that was more comfortable than most hotel beds. I even had a private full bathroom.

I am VERY grateful that I could stay there.

Saturday I hung out most of the day with friends. I got to see beta58 "video-spin," which is hard to describe, maybe he should make a Youtube video demonstrating it. He gave me a personal tour of his tech set up dig, of which I was amazed and grateful for. I hung out with cyaneyed during a security sweep, while we looked for the mysterious "I won't show my badge" woman with short dark hair and a black hoodie sweater (ten security people were looking for her after she escaped into the dealers room, and we never found her).

I went back to the house around 7 to get a nap so I could rave. Those who saw my blog entry that night knew that I did not rave. beta58 did his best to entertain the crowd waiting for the band, which I think there name was "Versailles." Even though they were supposed to be playing at 10 and ending at 11, they didn't start until 1am. I left before they played, because I had to be wake up at a decent hour Sunday morning. I was pretty pissed, and so were a lot of ravers and band groupies also pissed. It got worse before I left, because people were coming up to ME and asking "when will they start?" and "You should go up there and do something," and somehow because they thought I did Emcee work for other cons, I would do so for this one. Luckily, some raver girls got on stage and wiggled for a while. Like I said, beta58 did a little spinning, but he kept being interrupted, and couldn't do a light show for security reasons. The band may show up at any minute... what a pisser. There were some people playing techno from their laptops or car stereos outside, but it wasn't the same.

BTW: He has a great quote on his recent blog entry about this.

I went home, and found out later that day that the rave started at 2am. At 2am, I was in bed. listening to techno on my iPhone, dozing off and dreaming of raving.

Sunday I got to hang out with Beth (medical ops) and her kids, Brian and Kathleen, who are super awesome kids. One of those fannish parents who got it right. I fell in love with Kathleen, who is very gregarious. When she gets excited about something, she talks like she's gasping for air, it was very cute.

I left early, like at about 1. I got home, had dinner with takayla and then pretty much rested the rest of the evening.

My impression of the con was it was nice, but it made a lot of n00b mistakes for a 10 year old con. Notably staff suite, which people complained about all weekend. There also seemed to be a lack of volunteers, from what I heard. But there were no real disasters, so I guess that's good. I really liked the attendees, though. I kept hearing from security and medical how few incidents they had for a con this size. And the con is, after all, FOR the attendees. And I hung out with friends, and made some friendships a little stronger. I missed my wife and son, but I did okay. If friends go next year and it's in the same place and I have free or very cheap crash space, I'll probably go again.

I got some cheap crash space and a ride in the works for AMA next year, too.

Some candid photos here: Posted in: anime , animeusa , con , conventions

Okay, okay! I get it! (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Now, I had no plans whatsoever to go to Anime USA. Not for any reason other than "why?" and "I don't have that kind of money for admission, hotel, and why again?" I have no idea who runs it, but I have never had any reason to dislike them. They were pretty much below my radar like dozen of other conventions.

So, last week, a coworker asked me if I was going. Nope.
Then a friend asked me later that same day. Nope.
Then another friend asked me. What the heck, no? When is it?
Then two more friends asked me. "We're going, are you?" Uh...
Then another two friends said, "We have crash space at my (wealthy) mom's house."

You know, I think the Gods are trying to tell me something. I am a BIG believer in listening to the whims of the spirit world, and so for NO OTHER REASON, I am probably going to go. I have this feeling that I did at Balticon in 1988, when I met Christine. Something is afoot, and I think it's a big positive thing.

So in two weeks, I think I'll be at an anime con I have never been to, probably volunteering, hanging out with a lot of friends, and hopefully partying my ass off. Posted in: anime , anime usa

Waiting for a new anime: First Squad (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

It's well known that I love stories set in the forties/fifties or WWII that involve magic, steampunk or other scifi elements. These days I'm anxiously awaiting the day that First Squad starts running on TV in Japan.

First Squad, a Russian-Canadian-Japanese project, tells the unlikely story of a group of young Russian soldiers who are pitted against a Nazi invasion force that has mobilised a rather special ally. Apparently the Nazis have raised from the dead a band of medieval crusaders and bestowed them with magical powers. Sounds like a solid story to me! ^_^

I heard about this series from the Japan Probe weblog who also show the trailer on their site. The music and artwork shown are fscking awesome and I'm really hoping this show will rock. :)

Posted in: anime , first squad , nazi , russia , studio 4c

Finally catching up: My neighbor Totoro (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

It took me long enough!

I've been a fan of Studio Ghibli's works for quite a while now, which started off with Kiki's delivery service. After that many other movies followed, but I never saw their most famous work My neighbor Totoro (trailer).

Like in a few of Ghibli's movies there isn't actually that much that happens during the 90 minutes of the movie. Well... No... It's weird: a lot happens, yet very little happens. ^_^

Confusing?

Totoro's about a child's adventure. Discovery. Love for your family. Childish fantasies. Awe and just a little bit of fear. And I just realised that the folks over at the Ghibli Museum (in Mitaka, Tokyo) managed to capture all of this perfectly! While watching Totoro I felt just like when I was at the museum :)

Now that the movie's done, I feel relaxed and touched (emotionally, that is). I feel happy :) That's a good start to an evening filled with homework!

Posted in: anime , catching up , my neighbor totoro , totoro

Dennou Coil, a new anime in my Top 5 (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

A few days ago I mentioned last season's series Dennou Coil (Wikipedia) in my Ak8 report. As I wrote in said report, I'm absolutely in love with the anime and it's clearly worked its way into my Top 5 of favourite shows. It's endearing, it's full of adventure, it's exciting and now it even has sadness.

With "now" I mean "starting from episode 13", because my word! I was expecting another happy ending, a bit like last episode's filler story, but boy was I wrong ^_^; I really felt for those kids, and their friend who's in very real pain. *sniffle* Ah, that's some great storytelling right there...

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the show's opening and the trailer.

DennouCoil.flv

Posted in: anime , dennou coil , top 5

A modest poll (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I forgot why I wrote this e-mail, like over 6 years ago, but I should mention that the "Humping Giraffes" joke was inspired from Prune Bran, c. 1989-1993, from the skit "National Perversion Test" (I think). It is probably the fault of dptwisted or badmagic. I found it in an old e-mail folder, and decided to post it. Posted in: anime , conventions anime , humping giraffes , lostcause , prune bran

Monchhichi Dolls Commercial (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

This haunts me from the 1980s. I never had one. I never wanted one. But this commercial was played over and over and over again.

Many years later, I was at an anime con, and someone was telling me that these toys were a HUGE hit in Japan, but never caught on as much in the US. But Lord knows they tried.

Just TRY to get that song out of your head! I searched for this when I woke up to that song after a sinus headache, after not hearing it for nearly 20 years.

DAMN YOU, MONCHICHI!! Posted in: anime , commercial , monchichi , video

Classic anime: Gunbuster (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Sunday was a day well spent :)

Aside from having a great time with Kaiju and donating him Marli's older laptop, we also got to watch some nice anime. Aside from watching an episode of Planetes (which surprisingly Marli claimed to enjoy!) we also watched the full Gunbuster OVA. Kaiju had invited me to come and watch this series after I'd gotten excited seeing an AMV for Diebuster. Diebuster, in essence, is Gunbuster 2.

Watching that classic anime on the big screen in Kaiju's living room was something else! The series may be from 1988, but it looks awesome nonetheless!

The show definitely has its faults. The story feels rushed, is -full- of cliches and definitely has too much fan service for my taste. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the nude female form as much as the next guy, especially when it's drawn as nicely as in this show. But enough is enough, alright? ^_^;

But putting that aside it has so many good things as well! I love the visual effects and the choice in colours Gainax made. Seriously, the colours are amazing, especially on the alien attackers. It's also rather cool that Gainax dared to take on the subject of time dilation in a serious manner, analysing the effects it has on both the people undergoing the effects and on those left behind.

To sum it up: it ain't no master piece, but it's a damn fine pass-time anywho!

Posted in: aim for the top , anime , classic anime , gunbuster

Kam sa needa! (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I feel better today. I have to admit, Friday I felt like dog meat, but got better in the afternoon despite the fact takayla left for the whole weekend to be with her sister Debbie for her birthday. anyarm and Brain went with her, so that meant someone had to stay home with the dogs, and CR is still 16, and wasn't feeling very well anyway.

I was resigned to spend the whole weekend alone catching up one housework, but luckily, aksident came to the rescue, and she stayed Friday into Saturday morning. She was having a very bad Friday the 13th, and needed some company not related to her, so her and CR and I went out to Starbucks, hung around until close, walked home, and was up until about 1am when we all crashed.

Saturday brought more fun as I was invited to a cookout with the Heares, Bruce, and Cheryl which is kind of symbolic because the Heares and FanTek are like surrogate families in a way. It ended at a trip to Super H Mart, which I had been told was the major Asian supermarket one anime fan MUST go to. For YEARS people have been telling me to go there to pick up the latest of Asian cuisine, but everyone flaked. And I live like 4 miles away.

I thought it was nice, but I have to admit, it wasn't a very clean place. It was far bigger than I thought, even though I had passed by it before. There were THRONGS of people of ALL nationalities crammed into that place, which was as big as an average supermarket here, but more packed full of customers than I have ever seen around here except just before a winter storm. I say it wasn't clean because they had a minor fly problem, some of their fresh produce was rotting (I couldn't find ONE bag of oranges, for instance, that didn't have a molding orange in it), and a lot of stuff was worn, dented, and poorly labeled. Maybe I am a spoiled American snob, so I tried to tell myself it seemed like a Hong Kong market and a little germiness or limp brown leafiness never hurt anyone.

Their seafood section was wide open. Assorted things from the sea, some of which didn't look very nice, lay in open pans of ice. They had mottled gray "Korean Squid," which looked larger than the white squid I am used to. I don't know what makes it Korean, but they also looked angry, as if to say, "What are YOU looking at, bub?" stodgycat actually took a picture of them, which I thought might be rude, but I was also thinking of doing the same thing. I looked at some kind of small pink eel, which looked like a disturbing combination of sliced erect penis, earthworm, and a carrot, and wondered, "How does one cook this?" I thought that a lot at this place. I recalled Anthony Bourdain's trip to South Korea, and how the seafood stew had some of these fish and bivalves I was looking at.

They had a poor Pocky selection, but WOW, made up for it in the rest of the candy. They even had some Swedish brands there, which was a little surprising, although the only Marabou they had was the small bars with hazelnuts (I am not a hazelnut fan). I got some Anna's Gingersnaps anyway. And some Giant Strawberry Pocky. I got a lot of Ramune, in flavors I have never seen, including something only labeled "Children's flavor." I have never eaten children before, but I imagine now they are quite mildly sweet with a hint of coconut milk. I also drank something awesome that was green tea with brown rice. It tastes like strong tea with a Shredded Wheat aftertaste. This may not appeal to some, but it certainly appeals to me.

They also had a huge kitchen section, with personal rice cookers (yay) for $100 (boo), but I bet I can get cheaper elsewhere, or even there if I am not holding up my pants with one hand. They also had an anime section, which I got a gift for takayla.

I could have spent hours there, but I have lost so much weight since last summer, my shorts weren't staying up. I'll go back, but only if I know how to select fresh squid, and have a recipe ready. Posted in: anime , food , heares

Chibi Con 2007 - paying a visit to the newcomers (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Saturday was the last of a long string of very busy Saturdays for me. In this final, hectic weekend I visited Chibi Con 2007 as a dealer. Chibi Con, as some of you may know, is the Netherlands' latest addition to the anime convention scene, following in the footsteps of our own Anime 200x and our competitors Abunai. I for one welcome the Chibis: they're a young and ambitious lot.

As a courtesy among competitors it's been tradition to offer the other festivals a free table at your own convention. Hence us and Abunai came to Chibi Con to promote our own show. However, since it'd only been a month since Anime 2007 we filled our booth with Shiranai Travel stuff instead. In short: we were trying to get as many people as possible enthused about going with us to Japan.

I was amazed by the amount of interest we got, especially considering the lackluster reactions at Abunai 2006. Back then it was a struggle to even get people to take the flyer, but this time around they were going like hot cakes. All in all we gave out around 45 flyers for our 1400 euro trip to Japan. I am not sure what this success can be attributed to, but I'm thinking about a number of possibilities.
* More people want to travel to Japan.
* Chibi Con drew more people who want to travel to Japan.
* More people have become affluent.
* Chibi Con drew more affluent people.
* Chibi Con draws a different crowd than the other two festivals.
* Our sales pitch and enthusiasm was infectious and got people on board.

I doubt whether the crowd at Chibi Con is much different from the other two festivals, demographically speaking. Geographically, yes. Demographically, not much so. So I like to think that our enthusiasm drew in lots of folks :)

Now, about Chibi Con itself. I wasn't looking forward to the festival much, expecting a rather amateurish setup. As Viviana put it: Now that I'm on board with the most professional festival I can't help but notice all the atrocities at the other festivals. In the end though, I was rather surprised to find that I found the whole environment rather enjoyable. I did realize that you shouldn't think of CC as a full-blown festival, but instead you should think of it as a fair or bazaar. The whole event looked like it was setup by a group of friends, to enjoy themselves along with six hundred other people. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and I have to say that the Chibis succeeded wonderfully!

Do I think that Chibi Con is a real competitor to Abunai and Anime 200x? No.
Do I think that they make a fine addition to the dutch anime scene? Absolutely!

EDIT:
My apologies to the folks at Ars Lounge. An unclosed <i> tag borked the layout for all the posts below mine. Sorry ^_^;

Posted in: anime , chibi con , chibicon , shiranai travel , utrecht

Mouse (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I did something kind of silly at AMA. I bought a mouse pad.

I had always said that I'd never actually buy a mousepad unless it lit up or something, and even when those came out, I didn't get one. My first mouse pad I got when I lived with Bruce back in 1988 when I got my AtariST system. He gave me a blue one, even though I got a gray one with the Atari logo on it free with the system. The blue pad lasted until I stopped using the ST around 1993 or something, and it's probably still around somewhere in my den. When I got my first Windows system in 1996, I used a black one I found in an abandoned desk at work.

In 1998, when the movie "Dark City" was being promoted, Bruce got a metric ton of Dark City mousepads for Evecon or Castlecon (whatever con was 6 months before the movie release). I ended up with a lot of them, so I gave them out at work, and kept a few for myself. Funny, I never actually got to see the movie (I heard it was obscure, but pretty good), but I have had the mousepad through all my job changes and moves. When I moved to this new company, it made me feel a little better I had a reminder of my good old days in International Wardialing, when I first used it.

It wasn't a good mousepad, really. It was slick vinyl circle with a cheap foam backing. It was a little too small, and sometimes it didn't work so nice with optical mice until I scuffed it a little, but I never wanted to actually stoop and buy a new one.

Until AMA. When I got stuck to someone who was desperately trying to sell them. I heard from some merchant friends that AMA wasn't exactly covering cost for them, and the independent and obscure art sellers were doing the worst. So, because I was a little goofy on stress, lack of food, and low blood sugar, I got a punk rock girl mousepad from dougsmithart.com.

Man, the girl behind the table was really trying to sell me a mousepad. I told her that most of what they had would get me in trouble at work. I am not into getting scantily clad or partially naked anime women as a desktop background, or even art to hang on the wall (I have Nybor stuff, and that's strong enough for me), so a mousepad where my hand would be grazing some fake boobies seems a little creepy. So then she jumped to a mousepad with a modestly dressed punk rock girl on it.

Dammit.

So now I own a mousepad and the memory of a smile from a very grateful artist's female assistant. And the funny part is, my optical mouse works a LOT better. Posted in: ama , anime , artist , computer , mousepad

Watching Lucky Star (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

A while back I said how Anime 2007 left me with two series that I wanted to see. I should've said "three" because I forgot about Lucky Star, which was used as part of the introduction of the AMV competition.

I managed to get my hands on some LS episodes throught the usual fansub channels. After seeing two episodes I think I like it... It's not something that makes me scream OMG! Si teh kewl anime! You must watching too!, but it does keep me amused ^_^; The story follows four high school girls through their daily lives, much like Azumanga Daioh did. Lucky Star uses the same kind of short stories, leading up to punch lines, mostly because like AD it's base on a yonkoma-format manga.

What makes LS worth watching is the fact that it contains a lot of modern pop culture references. Even non-geeks will understand a lot of the joke material, while some true gems remain hidden for the true geeks to pick out :D So far I've seen MMORPGs, modern and classical anime, video games, the Internet and blogging being mentioned on the show.

So if you're looking for a new anime to follow and you're hankering for some comedy, grab yourself some Lucky Star.

Posted in: anime , lucky star , review

New anime series to watch: Bartender (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

A few months ago the Anime 200x staff received a very interesting event suggestion. One of our regular gophers Atomsk suggested that we organise a premium event based on the Bartender anime which was aired in Q4 of 2006.

The basic premise of the event being the showing of two or three episodes from the series, with the hotel's bartender serving cocktails from those episodes to our guests. This would be a paid, premium event with a rather limited signup possibility because one bartender can only make so many drinks in twenty minutes. A great idea that we're all in support of!

Atomsk got me curious about the Bartender series, me having never seen one episode, or even having heard of it. Regrettably, the only way I can get my hands on the series in a format that I will be able to understand is through the magic of fansubs (the series hasn't been licensed to a western company yet and hence there are no official subtitles available). The only subs available for Bartender are rather high resolution Matroska files, which were too heavy to play on my Powermac so I had to burn'm to DVD.

Anywho, with that out of the way: I sincerely love Bartender. Each episode focusses on the life-story of a new person visiting the Eden Hall bar, explaining their conundrum and how they deal with life's issues. The stories are mostly told from a flashback or third-person point of view, with the main characters sitting at the bar while reliving their story.

Given the show's name it's hardly a surprise that the show also focusses on cocktails and other alcoholic beverages a lot. Each episode introduces two or three new cocktails, describing their ingredients and part of their back story. The main featured cocktail also reappears in the closing credits with a real bartender preparing the drink in the background. It's one way of learning the history of cocktails :)

IMHO the animation's a bit basic and the amount of CGI may be offensive to some (I'm not too bothered by it). The music's great though and each episode successfully conveys the atmosphere.

To summarize: I'd heartily recommend Bartender to anyone who's looking for a slice-of-life story, with an adult approach.

Posted in: anime , anime 2007 , bartender , cocktail , review

Yay! A little snow, finally! (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

It's been a while since Blackie had last seen snow. Last year I believe she thought it to be intriguing, but not much more. This year she actually seemed stumped by the white flurry, wiggling outside her windows. She even got up on her hind legs to tap against the glass, trying to catch a few flakes :3 She's never done that before! She's given up though, returning to her huge beanbag in front of the gas fire.

I'm just glad that I got to see a little snow before winter is over! I was -so- jealous of my family in Finland getting their usual fluffy whiteness, leaving me out in the cold. I'll have to go outside for a bit later on to play in the snow ^_^

Speaking of snow: I found it fitting to watch the Tiny snow fairy Sugar special episodes today, after finally watching the last two DVDs of the series this week. Now, at long last, I've finished watching an anime that I started following in 2000! I have to say it was worth the wait :) The ending to the story was good and actually had an unexpected turn of events for me. I'm so glad I decided to buy those 20 Geneon/Pioneer DVDs at a discount... Posted in: anime , cat , snow , tiny snow fairy sugar

I got linked on Wikipedia (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

OMG, this is so cool!

I've been quite happy with all the effort I put into my Arrow Emblem page in the Anime section. I had never found another website gathering all the rare information on this series, so I took it upon myself to grab as much as I could and put it together. And now I find out that the Wikipedia entry on "Grand prix no taka" references my page!

Sweet! <3

Posted in: anime , arrow emblem , grand prix no taka , wikipedia

Millennium actress (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Millennium Actress is a movie that's about a lot of things and at the same time the real story only covers around 20% of the running time.

Imagine if you will an interview with a renowned actress from your country's hayday. While the interview progresses you visit her past and all the movies she's been in. But because fiction and reality lie real close to each other there's no easy way of telling which is which. This is exactly what the lead of M.A. goes through: visiting both Chiyoko's past, as well as the various stories and characters' she's portrayed.

If I were to be crude and to summarize the whole plot into one sentence it would be: "Young girl chases an impossible love and in doing so repeatedly plays that exact same role in many a movie.". Hmm... there's one of those themes that I described earlier: impossible and immortal love.

Anywho: the artwork and the animation in this flick are top notch. While the character designs aren't my favourites they sure do fit the story and the way it's told! I also love how both the interviewer and the camera man actually appear inside Chiyoko's memories, to actively relive and take part in them. I can't recall any similar use of flash backs in other movies.

If you're up for an artsy, difficult kind of movie I would really recommend Millennium Actress.

Finally, just as a warning, the closing scenes can be a real tear jerker if you're susceptible to that sort of thing... which I am... ^_^; Posted in: anime , japan , millennium actress , movie review

Preparing for Anime 2007 (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

I'm feeling really good about Anime 2007!

Quite recently I've refound my energy for our festival, allowing me to get a turbo-start on my work! I've banged together the designs for both the Dealing Room and the Doujin Circle Domain and I've sent out invites to all parties involved. I'm hoping lots of them will sign up again, so both rooms can become a huge success.

What? Yes, you read that correctly: two rooms. Might as well give you a little "behind the curtains" view ^_^

This year we've given all attending doujin circles the option of booking discounted tables in the Circle Domain, as opposed to the normal dealing room. By separating the circles from the dealers we're creating a much more cozy and relaxed atmosphere for them, giving them aaaaall the time to talk to their visitors.

So it's a win-win situation for them: cheaper tables and a comfier environment.

Now you have to be asking yourself what the catch is. What's in it for us, right? Well, in the end it means we can rent out more table space to commercial dealers who'll be paying the normal table rate. Also, by taking the circles away from the Dealing Room, we're improving the overall flow of the crowd since people won't be sticking around the same two tables for over fifteen minutes. The downside for us being the fact that we're renting an additional room from the hotel, whose costs we most probably cannot cover using the circle table income.

As I said: I'm feeling all stoked up and happy to be at work again! I've already received the first three sign-ups from dealers, so I'm really enthused! Yes, three signups within an hour of sending the invitation ^_^ Glee! Posted in: anime , anime 2007 , festival , manga , volunteering