Monthly Archives: December 2003

the sickness

It is sort of hard to have a restful vacation, when you find yourself awake at 3am coughing up your lungs : (

I’ve enjoyed not working for the past few days, but I’d have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t caught the lingering cold from hades. I’ve been resting up, saw Return of the King (woo!) and Paycheck (lukewarm afflected john woo. i had a hard time believing any of the drama in the movie while uma thurman was around, because I kept thinking if she had a samurai sword in her hand she could have easily dispatched aaron eckhart and his henchmen house of blue leaves style). I got the first and second seasons of Alias on dvd, so I’ve been reminiscing about Sydney’s earlier travails.

I’ve also discovered the fun of interlibraryloaning manga through the public library system, yay!

manga

Mars Vols 1 & 2

Berserk – I picked this up because I knew it had a huge fanbase, I was hoping I would like it too. But it is not for me. I didn’t care for the art or the storyline. The setting is interesting, you don’t see too much manga set in a pseudo medieval world where the antihero has an elf for a sidekick. But If I wanted to read manga with horror overtones where an antihero goes around slaughtering people, I could read Blade of the Immortal instead, where it is much more artfully done

Ruroni Kenshin vol 1 – I was happy when Viz started publishing it in Shonen Jump because I enjoyed the anime, even though the show dragged on a bit. It is interesting Viz is selling the manga for $7.95, it is undercutting Tokyo Pop a bit.

Erica Sakurazawa’s Nothing But Loving You

Alice 19th vol 1 and 2 – Has all the elements you would expect in a “magical girl” manga: heroine who boys keep falling in love with, romantic conflict, cute animal spirit guide, magical jewelry, and strange things happening near Tokyo Tower. But I will happily read anything by Watase.

when fandoms collide

Via Mefi, Once more with Hobbits features songs from middle earth using the music of the Buffy musical episode “Once more with feeling.”
I like “I’ll never tell” as sung by Gimli and Legolas:

LEGOLAS:
He’s short
GIMLI:
He’s pretty
LEGOLAS:
He thinks his jokes are witty
GIMLI:
He hums some elven ditty
As we run along

LEGOLAS:
He’s gross, and hairy
GIMLI:
He acts like he’s a fairy
LEGOLAS:
He’s stubborn and contrary
Stupid and headstrong

tempest in a teapot

Greg writes about the response to Nanette’s “I hate library weblogs” post.

Personally, I think differences of opinion in the blogging world could be solved in any number of ways, perhaps a steel cage deathmatch, or someone could round up all the participants (and I count myself as one of them, because I think I left a comment over on tinylittlelibrarian’s blog) and strand them on a desert island, where only the strong will survive.

Or we could always call in Mr. T

prof likes cardcaptors

Bill Ellis, Penn State folklore researcher profiled in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

‘Mr. Ellis has taken down from a shelf a large portfolio containing his collection of cels from Japanese anime. “On my salary,” he says, “it is the one vice I can indulge after the bills are paid.”

Mr. Ellis has been fascinated by the films (someone who is not a connoisseur would say “cartoons”) for several years, and he is a member of an online discussion group devoted to the series Cardcaptor Sakura. Anime narratives often involve magic, and the online forums provide community — two basic elements of his research.’