Is your journey really necessary?

Alright; updates.

I eagerly rushed through the final disc of Sandbaggers, and my unconditional infatuation with the series is now cemented. I'm going to watch the final three again, just basking. Any investigation online features two sorts of comments; the first are all evangelical praise shouting that this is easily the best televised espionage-themed show ever created. The second are questions. Are there more episodes? There must be more episodes. It can't end like that! WTF!!! Sandbaggers ends less on a cliffhanger so much as a moment that feels as if there are actually 20 minutes left in its finale. There aren't, of course; it's just over. Which does beg so many questions. Was it intentional? The number of episodes in season three is consistent with its predecessors. Presumably if the creator died, or went through the trouble of faking his own death, he would have had either bigger things to worry about than wrapping up his series, or nothing at all to worry about ever again, depending. There are small moments in the final few episodes that, to me, knowing that I was approaching the end, felt like quiet, barely perceptible farewells; sweeping statements of broad belief from characters not usually inclined to do so, etc, but I may have been seeing what I wanted. Roy Marsden is a phenomenal actor. He can hold his features absolutely rigid, and act only with his eyes, expressing a huge gamut of emotions and internal calculations. Once one becomes accustomed to it, the effect is positively mesmerizing.

Funny, because I first tried Sandbaggers years ago, and didn't make it past the third episode. I remember being impressed with its daring and willingness to risk major characters, and then capitalize ruthlessly on our preconceived notions of what a television series will and will not do with those characters, but was a bit driven away by its frequent decent into the language of its milieu. SIS, MI5, the PM, the Foreign Office, D-Int, D-Ops, C, etc. At first it seems more than you can take. But like the Wire, Sandbaggers never patronizes its viewers. There are no simple secretaries that have things they should already be well aware of patiently explained to them, hence you. There are no, "Previously on." You will learn what these things mean, and quickly, and soon you will forget that you ever struggled, so wrapped up you'll find yourself in the breakneck machinations of the great game. So. Fucking. Good.









Gaming has been light. There was a lot of Too Many Ninjas played, a lot of ninjas killed, a new personal record (of 146), achieved rather ironically while I was talking to my mother on the telephone. (We were already past the 1.5 hour mark, and I hate the telephone with a passion. I know, I know.) Though I feel I may make more strips for it at some point, I also feel quite good about moving on. It's not a sensation that I get very often in gaming. Far more frequent is shelving a game to come back to later, where it joins the list of other great games that I love and intend to return to.

My lunch-break game is Das Überleben Dem Großen Sprung. Google translation: The survival of the Great Leap. Accurate. Weird game. Likely to invoke nausea or vertigo in the sensitive. I'll come back to it.

Otherwise, not much. Most of June I was on a vacation from N. But that ended. Today I was kicking ass. Three of the newest episodes, with comments. (Not sure of the entertainment value of the following, but you wouldn't believe the amount of dying that went into clearing these levels, so I'm a bit, erm, prideful? Sounds weird, but it's 3 in the damn morning. Besides, when has entertainment value ever determined anything on a blog for Christ's sake?)

Episode 25


Deepfreeze [remake]
Ridiculously fun. Those gentle curves essentially act as runways, and your little n goes flying. Figure out a strategy for one side, reverse and repeat, and you're done.


Aux terminal
Now we're getting a bit more involved. Still, you can pick your path, and those gauss turrets aren't too bad once you get the hang of them. At least not in this level, anyway. One of the cool things with N is just when you think a type of enemy isn't that big of a deal, you come across a level that makes it a huge pain the ass again. Thanks, N.


Leap of faith
Super fun. Coasting along pretty smoothly up till...


Rocket run
Actually, this isn't too bad. Rockets take some getting used to (or getting reacquainted with, as the case may be), but this is just a matter of speed, repetition, and a strategy for the center room. Mine was bounce in, hit the exit switch, drop back down, bounce in again, hit the door switch, and run like hell for home. Takes a couple dozen tries. Easy!


Slippery slope
This is the one that stopped me dead, and made me fucking hate gauss turrets. It's that one down below. It took me fucking forever to get the rhythm of the staircase without getting shot in the ass, and the first time I finally made it into the rocket room below I panicked, got blown up, managed to freeze my Mac while going to bed (sometimes I'll just minimize N to try to get around its progression thingy) and had to do the whole episode again. Luckily, the second big attempt went much better. Got the stairs (after another 20-50 deaths), and cleared the rocket room first try, no problem.

Episode 26


Haste
Actually, these levels are looking pretty easy, on average. No wonder I cleared 3 episodes tonight. Haste is moving fast, and bouncing carefully. Super fun. Passed on the first try, which is very rare.


Claustro
Murder. I finally managed to get all the switches and sent two drones down the exit hall, forcing me to wait for them to come back out so I could enter. My heart was in my throat at that point, I wanted to move on so badly.


Stick the landing
Another wide open, huge jumping, fast moving, completely exciting level. It killed me a lot, once while I teetered on that tiny opening above the wide open exit, which made me scream, but mostly this level was a blast. N does this all the time. I got all those coins, but decided to get the switches first after getting the coins and then dying over and over. The coins are the easy part. Also, this is one of those weird symmetrical levels where you pick a direction to do it and seem unable or unwilling to do it reversed, even though it's no more difficult. Odd.


Constructive
This one was a pain, but it's kind enough to give you that top level to prepare for the next one down with the drones, which is considerate. The bottom level took some getting used to, and the exit chamber is always nail-bitingly tense, being so close with just one thing between you and the exit. Those zap drones with the antennae... I don't understand how I can have evaded them thousands of times, and yet their tracing pattern still feels somewhat random. Basically, if a level's got one, it's completely different every run. Which at least keeps it from getting boring.


Industrial zone 4
Unlike the chaingun drones, which just pummel you into the ground relentlessly. Basically, if you're in the open and you hear their little VrrRR, you're about to get smashed. I've tried just ignoring them and flying around like a maniac (like with the homing turrets) and it just doesn't work. This level killed me a hell of a lot. Actually, the drones are so fucking deadly that once you go inside to get the switches you hardly even notice the gauss turrets (although at this point I may have just been avoiding them so often that I was starting to do it automatically, which is kind of cool). Also, starting this level over and over by jumping right past that drone was really exciting and fun, and made me feel like a fucking bad-ass. I wasn't able to get all of the switches inside in one go around before the drones entered, so I'd have to flee, grab some coins, and wait for them to leave. The strangest thing in N is when you have to wait for something. I found myself thinking what a different game it would have been if the designers had stuck with their original concept of a stealth game, before they realized it's more fun to just kamikaze everything every single second forever. Ahhh.

Episode 27


Isthmus
By this point I was on a roll, and was trying to keep my momentum up. Which didn't really work, because this level killed the hell out of me. One of the rare N levels featuring a shortcut, which I didn't take because climbing a shaft of mines arranged like that is ridiculously fucking hard. I took the longer route, and Bob's your uncle.


Outpost
Another hair puller. Getting the switches at the bottom releases those two extra homing zap drones, which come down and make that shaft super tricky (dozens of deaths), and then the homing turret mine room took me a while to find a path. The secret? Slide, fall, slide, fall, run! And don't get blown up. Which you will. It sucks.


Flightpath
A vacation. Another first try clear. Really nice after the constrained spaces of the previous. Bouncy. You can see time was becoming something of a concern here, though.


Suicide mission
And back to nightmare. Those laser drones are funny. If it's just one it can be sometimes not that bad. Two, though, combined with those incredibly frustrating circle platforms, which fuck with your jump trajectories... ugh. I was hitting my suicide key constantly (if your start gets messed up there's no point in trying to get back on track). I even tried going up the wall on the right as a shortcut, which worked sometimes, but kept getting killed either by the lasers, the gauss turret, or falling off those damn circles. I ended up going the longer route from my first couple dozen attempts. Took at least 4 finish-line kills before I finally managed to squeeze by. I hate this level.


Agonizing [remake]
A three parter! Survive the shaft, maneuver through the thwumps over and over, back down the shaft, and then the rocket pillar death chamber. I was getting frustrated with the shaft and thwumps, so I mastered the rocket room, without having the door open, which meant that by the time I cleared the first two sections the third was a piece of cake. The path is to climb the left wall, hit the spring, and suicide fall into the doorway. Pretty fun when it's closed, really fun when it's open. The suicide clear is such an N kind of concept.

That's it, folks. I'm a ninja. You didn't know?

Telly and Tum Tum; together forever.

UOGTSC 06.24.09

Always the same cycle. Two days before the show, and the panic starts creeping in. This show underwent a very typical design path, in that after a long and challenging compiling we get a musical reverse Orio cookie. Oh, spoke too soon. Damn. But it is a pretty black show, in that we start German, go Telly Salvalas style, crooning to pudgy housewives, and then smoothly transition (of course) into Tum Tum, who asks these women, "Do you hear me, ho?" Oh, Tum Tum. You so crayzee.







Not sure it gets much better than that, but if you're curious you can listen to the rest, which I guess is me attempting to get blacker than that. And succeeding splendidly (of course!). How does one get blacker than Tum Tum? Well, Morocco for starters, and then some Senegalese rap. After that we're basically so black that our gravitation is sucking light and even time a little, so a white woman called the Space Lady croons Major Tom for us. Ahhhhh. (I actually like this song so much that sometimes it makes me kind of emotional. No fooling.) Then Dirty Red comes back and smacks her with a fresh shell-toe. Not hard or anything, but he sure scared the shit out of her. Dirty, cool out, man. You got power, I know.

That is a very bizarre summary, but I'm definitely leaving it as is.

More info on the Space Lady and Major Tom (Coming Home) for the nerds. Also, for anyone that wasn't bored witless by Side A of that Amnat Azawan cassette, Side B can be picked up here. Awesome Tapes From Africa has been providing more excellent North African fare, so expect further recommendations as I work my way through some of it. (I'm of mixed opinion regarding longish pieces like this in an hour-long show, but am going to reserve making any ironclad decisions for the time being.)

I mentioned during the show that the Get Carter theme was done by Roy Budd, who also did this little ditty.







I've barely written anything about it, but as I approach the end of its production (it was abruptly cancelled when its creator and head [perhaps sole] writer supposedly vanished without a trace in an airplane near Kodiak Island) I find myself confronting the realization that it is easily one of the best television dramas I have ever watched. I'd happily put it with Deadwood and the Wire, for example. It's phenomenal. These are the only clips available on YouTube, neither of which are good representations of the tone of the show as a whole (it's neither particularly violent or emotional, making it far more impactful when it indulges, as well as the fact that, like the Wire, it nearly never uses background music), but I think they're a fine introduction to the general caliber of the show. Dated? Absolutely. But the thing about writing this razor sharp is that it doesn't really age in a way that detracts anything. It also doesn't hurt that Roy Marsden is a fantastic actor.

What else has been going on? Not a whole hell of a lot. I was pretty late to the Fractious Zine Fair, and missed Matt and Katie by probably no more than a half-hour, which sucked. (I was pretty promptly sent scurrying home by the Ding Dong's collection of Paleolithic roaches, which, along with a pressing need for a familiar toilet, is one of my surefire "Home, James, and don't spare the horses" triggers. This is what nerds are like.)

ARChive not long ago. I spent $78, and got a fairly obscene amount of music out of it, so we can expect that gradually working its way into the program soon enough. I like having these nice episode showcases, so I'm going to go ahead and state that I'll be doing a better job (meaning one at all) of listing and photographing some of the vinyl's artwork, which is mostly all I buy it on to begin with. ARChive's a pretty big deal, for me and in general. Let's stick it in the queue of topics to potentially return to.

Oh man, I almost posted without mentioning anything about Michael Jackson! They'd take away my blogging license. The fact is, though, I have absolutely nothing interesting to say about it. Lets pretend that we have a very somber, serious, and respectful discussion of his musical career and the impact that he's had around the world, and a biting, cynical, world-weary conversation about the wealthy and their not-very-well regulated prescription drug cocktails, etc, and a few obligatory "fuck that pedo freak" hysterics and move the fuck on, eh? Honestly, a billionaire kicked it. I refer you back to Warren Zevon, who says about all I could want to on mortality. ("And the rich folks suffer like the rest of us; it'll happen to you.") I love this fucking song.





Not sure exactly how I came across this, but it made me wonder, "Geeze, there must be a whole, like, community around this. DVDs available and such. What must that be like?" So I clicked another video.



Which is probably only watched with interest by scientists, killers, and... well, us. Birds are rather vicious. They seem to not really tussle, but prefer eviscerating one another. Grim.

Lastly, a continuation of my rather neglected Famicase machine translation showcase. A refresher of the first batch can be found at the bottom of this post.

Famicase '08
Games 9-16


"Hopper Dream"
Pea / manga -
I dream tonight dream bounce. I flew from the sky high above the roof, falling faster than the wind. Beyond like the Super Bowl. Or delivered to a girl with happy memories of the wings and touch the wind, I do not know what would happen, I dream.


" SIMON "
Dufond Adrien / Flash　
Latest version of the popular american electronic game Simon now available on Famicon! Featur a special 4 colors ligth rounded controller* *1 or 2 VS Players | Cable can be rolled up inside the controller | Operate without battery


"MONKEY FREAK"
untainer (antenna) / minamics (Illustrator) no reason (Sound Creator)
(Excerpt from the back side box) to lose in front of his parents by animal experiments, monkeys were sacrificed under test for the prosperity of mankind and his own "O-36 issue". Exposed to massive radiation in the body, try to escape from the laboratory and with a sense朦朧? Away from the violent disturbance of the content and recovery in three days, was the subject of SARATTA game.


"Meeting"
Kaori Baba / Graphic Designer
A dozen pet cats, and they come to見KAKETARA in place, it's "Meet the Cats" is called. Appears to be spent in a daze and just see from HATA目and information exchange, and sometimes a power struggle, and love, you can experience a simulation in the form of social cat deep, actually.


"Wire to Wire Real Bass Fishing Game"
KOSAKU Maeda / business free
Run in the entire United States, BASUFISSHINGUGEMU said. Participating in the tournament bus towards the overall victory. Location wage set in a vast number of people FISSHINGUBATORU. IJIKONDISHON and can爆釣, tight conditions that require advanced technology. And different stages waiting for you. 8 using the controller's first fishing BITTOMASHIN, aim is the overall winner! !


"Argument Champion"
Tsukasa Mizuno (SAMA) / Painter
The original was produced for distribution around the sources, using only a microphone, can attract attention in a game ever. "VOISUANARAIZA function" which features a set of extensions that are shipped with a microphone, the voice can be saved! When you save your voice, the voice of your character "VOI" We are born, while the story, the strongest "VOI" Let's grow. Battle command is not input, voice input all! Password is stored voiceprint can also play with your friends! A voice said, GARAGARAJAN. The DOTTA? , Mr. B's fantastic, I'm going VOI yesterday. TEHEッ,


"Want to be dispensing"
NOZOMI Sakai / office worker
You are Mr. dispenser. We will dispense the medicine was prescribed. Mixing with the wrong and the patient's death. The grain of a second capsule, powder in 3 seconds, and A is the basic operation of the press and hold the button. Into doing one, I would learn about the biological clock. Keeper's time, the relationship inevitably video!


"Electrocardiograph family"
141 / people learn design
201X, this software was launched amid growing demand for home medical equipment, with increased elderly population. Using the two samples taken from the sound beating that put the left chest portion of the computer microphone, heart rate, blood pressure measurement, TV as a display screen electrocardiogram. Use in the transition to terrestrial digital broadcasting in TV and can be reused and the NES console, and amid calls for more than 00 from the decade, the explosion hit the eco-advantage of the trend still remains Manufacturers are expected in a home owned by the寡少NES console running around, it almost did not sell.

Famicase '09
Games 9-16


"Oh Wow NATSUKASHI"
Ishii Hiroaki (CONSUMERS) / music shop & Animation
Screen showing a third party "- Wow NATSUKASHI" game that can compete with it. Players, Image and video games seem nostalgic in advance, bring in on third parties to create software without reference. Created when the screen showed "NATSUKASHI -" determined the number of points in what was the word coming. "I NATSUKASHI" point, "I take these" five points "for hire" as a 20 point bonus points when you leave. Much to bring before the molded confection shop "before I borrowed this tape is interesting" and breathe to a third point of the pre -


"Kung Fu SAIKORAIDA"
Nagisa prism / Mr.漫豪large
To defeat the heinous aliens who descend to the earth suddenly, the final human weapon "SAIKORAIDAKANFU" to stand up! KANFUMODO打CHIKOMU the murder of 84 commands, and finally came forward rider mode of Two zapper to shoot in high speed screen ! SAIKOMODO SUPAPAWAGUROBU for use both hands!追I払E remove the alien from the planet of the three battle mode!! OP miracle 5M released simultaneously with the animation software!


"TEST No.8"
Ookawa Hisashi / illustrator
German manufacturer of medical software for NHS sight tests


"Human waste"
Yuppy / office worker
The major cities of the country, game or competition to reach the destination in time to BUTSUKARAZU. Of course, I will have more difficulty than we could go to cities and countries with high population density. People with large volume is more strongly attract, attention should be easier to hit and runs close to the draw! The play mode is able to regulate the population density will not determine whether MAX where I you.


"How autograph book (Why sign a decree!)"
atak hiiroh / illustrator
Better draw your own cool sign! Value appears in the profession and its historical figures, including celebrity artists and athletes to enter. The high is a major leaguer, the actor was in a motorcycle accident, premature mortality, and a living national treasure, is the sign of the lowest courier receipt, housewives ¥ 0. A B button "stop" and "hit" the point of use! The sale of the sign problem in elementary school and going on a boycott of the PTA, who created large signs (known as the "star") was a social phenomenon and a autograph session will be held. Specifications can write a paper label on his games>


"Stitch"
Oozu Makoto / HAIPAKURAFUTOKURIEITA
Finally came! Definitive test measures embroidery software!
Great Prince of the world embroidery teacher supervision ○
Approximately 300 fun can learn the techniques of embroidery!
Preparation for the past 10 years includes the test! !
Embroidery test up to level 3 to level 1.
Stitch controller (not included) I will allow more rapid progress.


"Family slash"
NNNNY / Graphic Designer
Family slash is called a generation live up to NES, the game tape for us to feel even more proud. Be stupid, bad eyes, and hanged out outside, we continued to play while being said. NES But for us is a vast playground, there was even at school sometimes. And so we come to talk with the NES. "Memory played in the same place" overnight in the garnishes. We even connected to the Internet, things like I was connected with NES. The software will forget the feeling of clean. Just play.


"Caramelized milk"
HTC * / illustrator?
Better to make fun at home I eat milk caramel child! HOW TO ... cooking a soft, but the body is decorated in the cassette is in fact not authentic, and complete sample of Caramel, is a respectable body of DS software. Because of the size comes with this type of gold, caramel-ZO cassette can make these any time you are there! Let's difficult to eat !!!!!

The frog crawling on stomach is torn and smiles.

I'm not sure if I'd call the break from posting "refreshing," exactly. Maybe that's why I enjoy the occasional breakneck rate; the moment I slow down I lose momentum, go blank, feel mentally tired of the subject matter I'd been planning out (This gets planned?!), and almost instantly start to dislike my output. Writing and posting in an evening is automatic, without time to reflect, which seems to be an advantage when it comes to... well, this.

Anyway, as I said, I'm feeling like a change. We've kind of quietly and sheepishly circled around a direct examination of outright pornographic material in the past, and I thought that in an effort to move laterally we'd look at something different. Not old dead ladies, smiling in vintage undies, not cute, vapid looking Japanese girls with extraordinarily artificial smiles and surgical augmentation, expensive flashes, and a rigid application of pixelated censoring of any kind of vaginal exposure and yet, curiously, non of rectal. No. We're Americans. Our surgery is more cut-rate, our starlets less "bodicon," thank heavens. Pop-shots, DP, USA.



I found a professional porn industry writer who also takes snapshots of the sets and events he visits. He calls himself Gram Ponante online.

In a way, finding him was kind of a dream come true. One of the greatest forms of awkward boredom is that exhibited by adult performers between takes. Somehow it seems to never lose its charm. It's unfortunately rather difficult to view these actors and actresses in a non artificial situation, behavior, or environment. Stuff like this, to me, is gold.





It's also interesting if you happen to be an engaged viewer of the history of pornography. A lot of these casual snaps and between-take portraits would have been considered more than pornographic enough in their own right less than 70 years ago. Now, they fall somewhere between raunchy vacation photos and adventurous "profile pics." Vernacular imagery from a culture so steeped in ritualized and Photoshopped (I almost wrote airbrushed) sexual iconography as to become inseparable from the constant buzz of "the pitch." All of our media, just drowning in its indulgence.





I know that there's something significant in that I find some of these images no less technically successful than your typical Richardson, Teller, or Kern portrait, despite the fact that their taker has absolutely zero in the way of, you know... that whole thing. He's not shooting GQ covers and unexciting author bio photos, let's say. He's a guy, going to work. Much like the people he's photographing. The only outlet for such pictures are adult industry specific media, and who the fuck looks at that outside of the industry?

Always with the context. Put these snaps in Purple, Vogue, The Nation, a Vitamin Water billboard, hanging on the wall of ICP, or strewn across the endless desert of Internet culture, discarded. Historians and philosophers will at least have something fun to do a century from now.


Perhaps one of the reasons I continue to enjoy looking at the nude as a subject is that, when it's presented to me as such, it's always narcotizing in how boring it is. And yet somehow, with a slight alteration in its context, a change in working method (the actual shooting of the pictures), when you take nudity and turn it into a blue collar uniform....

Oh, Ms. Waters. Um... need another High Life? One sec.

Celly, rain, and shootin' some b-ball.

....................






....................

Movemove.

The Men of North Winter County from Brad Conlin on Vimeo.

BIRDY NAM NAM - THE PARACHUTE ENDING Clip Officiel
by Has_Been

My favorite part is when he's in the cafe just kind of casually reaching over and grabbing her tits while absentmindedly rapping his ass off in whatever fucking language that is. Certainly my first full listening of this song. Holy cow.

Also, in terms of art in 09, what I'm seeing so far is big Kramers influence everywhere.

Too Many Ninjas!; Addictions of all sorts.

I've written before about beating games.

I'm currently addicted to a game that I've mentioned before. I actually have a huge archive of screengrabs that have been waiting for me to do something with them.

It is a tense game. It cannot be beaten, as far as I know. The upper limits of it... well, I can't even picture.

Many games deal with the idea of defeat. Lives, continues, health bars. Opportunity. Too Many Ninjas deals in only defeat. You only die. There is no maiden, no story.

You are not the ninja. You are something else, not really identified. A man with a sword, poised. He is fatal in the direction he (you) face the sword.

The other, the ninja, constantly breaks the rules. You can't both slide in. You can't launch that star the moment before you disappear from the screen, unreachable, and yet hurtling directly at us like a comet. They do.

It struck me, on coming back to it, that this idea of no recompense from death as glorious is very Japanese, though the creator is not.

Man, what a game. Not relaxing at all, though. Maybe some soothing music.



"The ninjas are probably after my shiny sword. Yeah, look at my sword, it's awesome."

Agreed.






Alright, last one and I go to bed. We all know this got really played out. But we're going to be old men one day, going, "Hey, do you remember...?" "Who!"

My Masturbation Chamber.

I bought a book that taught me to masturbate without external stimulus. It's freaky.

UOGTSC 06.10.09

I was worried that this episode wouldn't be as good as the last one, but I think it came out pretty well. (It starts kind of quiet and then ratchets up on the second song, then down, then up again, then basically evens out. Sorry. There's always going to be minor volume tweaking on any episode. It's probably the only guarantee I can give.)





Overview? Um, abortion diary into childhood drug abuse into Christian road trip into pure Deviltry, the usual weirdo Jap pop I get off on, hip-hop, and then we go Euro. Oh yeah, and the Holmes story, of course. Which is mental. I have a much weirder show on mp3 than I did on vinyl. (Although all that means is that now we're listening to rips of insanely rare vinyl uploaded by collectors into the arcane.)


It isn't on the playlist since it wasn't an mp3, but between tracks 11 & 12 is a cassette:
Description of the tape I bought at MoCCA from Picturebox. (I need more info!)
Sherlock Holmes and the Large Door
Partially inspired by a love for Dragnet radio plays. It includes music. It is "non-cannonical," which is a side-splittingly hilarious understatement. It was totally worth $5. I have to commend the guy who sold it to me (and also narrated). I would not be able to describe this to someone in such a way as they would like to buy it. You did, and I am glad for it.

Heksig by Par Accidente! sounds like an acoustic chiptune of sorts, and ends with surprising abruptness, as if it were meant to be on some kind of eternal hold-line loop. So I guess I'd describe it as the music from Dwarf Fortress in a hallucinatory waiting room. I like unmodulated guitar, as it always seems, when I hear it, to be a rather unusual and rare musical sound. Which is funny, I suppose, and maybe a little sad. Those with long memories may remember Par Accidente!'s eye-catching album art in the Best of 08 post from a ways back. In truth, it's a difficult album. But in isolation the tracks stand up to a close scrutiny on repeated listens.

Here's another Snap track that you can't really fuck with. Also, new Alf!





Which had maybe my favorite YouTube comment to date.
"I know it's weird to say, but i'm kind of sad that Alf wasn't raped in this one. :( "








MoCCA haul:

I'm curious to read what Ryan's got brewing in regard to newsprint comics publishing, which I thought was incredibly absent from the show as a whole, with the exception of Matei Branea, aka the pleasant, approachable dude with free (!) newspapers made with subsidies from the Romanian Cultural Institute. Although the contents are a mixed bag, the huge size allows for a lot of content to be crammed into a relatively small page count. And when it's good it's really, really good.

I guess this is an example of what I want a mini to be. Huge, cheap, with great color work mixed with great b/w work. The print quality can be perfectly acceptable and crisp. I would gladly pay $3-5 bucks for such a thing. It's possible that there was more there and I just managed to walk right by it. Oh well.

I've even seen very limited-edition photography "books" printed like this. The pictures are huge, and the effect can be quite breathtaking.

Also, I read a few bitchy recaps regarding the show, which is pretty normal, but then the comments. My god. Someone actually complained about the *texture of the floor*. At the fucking armory. And said, "Geeze, can't they find a place with laminate for the flooring?" Congratulations, sir, for the wimpiest sentiment I think I've yet come across. Not in comics or the internet, but in life.

And now it's my turn with the complaining. (What did I say about nerds and whining?) But in my case it's the typical, "Man. This shit is expensive," variety. So clearly I failed on the nothing from (relatively) bigger publishers mandate, because I walked out with a few longer things that I couldn't resist. This is my first Potent Mon comic, which I'm pretty excited about. (Although I just discovered this negative review by Noah Berlatsky. I'll have to finish the book before digging in so as not to go in already biased. Should be interesting.) This Picturebox book... they warned me. It's intense. I didn't really listen. "Yeah yeah, I know." But they were right. This is basically Necro and Visitor Q in comic format. It's so wrong so consistently... the art is incredible.

All in all, though, I guess the essence of my dissatisfaction is that I walked out of there feeling like I spent a shit-load of money, but when I got home and laid it out on the bed it didn't seem like I got that many comics. You know? Maybe it's like that for everyone.

Anyway, expect further impressions as I make my way through some of it. Also, we're pretty behind on the Famicase translation, but everything's been running long here lately. We even got so buried in YouTube videos that I felt it necessary to try to cut your browsers some slack by reducing the number of displayed posts (and a friend commented tonight that my site was still really long). I'm really happy with that last one, though. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to include so much that I forget about the pleasures of a bare-bones post. Something not like this one. And since we're being insufferably self-referential (rather like the good ol' days, in fact), it feels weird to be fiddling with the sidebar. I think it looks pretty good, though. Thoughts? (Other than about Raul Julia being the coolest guy on the planet. Okay, those too.)

MoCCA. I had a good day today.

MoCCA! What can I say about it? At times it felt more like a cross between a tattoo convention and a vintage eye-glasses enthusiast gathering (so of course I blended right in). New venue, at the Lexington Armory. It was hot, but that's rather inevitable considering how many bodies were jammed in there. You had to kind of wiggle in to get to the tables, which made it hard to see the merchandise from a casually strolling around vantage point, but no location can help with that. I failed to take any pictures, mostly because before I got there I was just thinking about my goals for the show (new Gauld, hopefully a copy of Bad N' Nice, and zines and minis over publishers whose merchandise I'll see in Jim Hanley's or my own store's shelves), and then later because my brain was overloaded and ceased to function properly after about twenty minutes.

My goal of attempting to spend money on the minis was a bit amusing once I was inside. I had set the aim in response to my purchases from my last attendance two years ago when I came home with some lovely books, but mostly D&Q, Fantagraphics, and Buena Ventura. All great publishers of wonderful material, but all things I would be seeing reviews of and hearing about and have regular access to over the course of the year. But once you stepped inside... it's just mini overload. There were hundreds of tables, and thousands of minis. One thing about small, intimate, hand-stapled (and sewn) books is that they're almost all equally eye-catching, all comparably priced (in the $3-20 range), and mostly touting a form of stylized primitivism that, in general, I can be quite keen on. Nobody calls it heta-uma here; it's probably considered more of a Gary Panter thing in this context.

But it made me realize that one of the reasons why it's easier to gravitate toward the publishers you're aware of and have purchased from before is that you can take their endorsement of something as encouragement. The minis are almost impossible to evaluate. There's so much to look at you always feel rushed to try to see more, and so feel that you don't have enough time with everything that looks interesting, but the alternative is to stand there for a few minutes and read it front to back, and put it down. I hate to say it, but I still feel like a bit of a snob when it comes to artwork. Which apparently the Danes are killing it.

They were probably my one psuedo-successful bit of clevertry over the day, when I asked if any of their zines were about Mads Mikkelsen. "I don't think he does comics," he said, smirking. "It's the only Danish joke I know," I said after about a minute of silence. But it got a smile, so it must have been half-decent.

Bob Fingerman was there, who I've bumped into at Kim's in the past and talked to before, and he was typically friendly and, like all the talent, busy making great sketches and polite banter for a stream of admirers. Actually, I was rather embarrassed most of the day, as every time I opened my mouth to say anything to anyone I was completely awkward and absentminded and just completely socially inept, stuttering while handing over my "postcard." So thanks, Bob, Tom, Katie, and Matei, for not making me feel as simple as I know I sounded. I'm not usually so slow. Maybe it was the heat, or my brain just overloaded on minis, which sounds weird but I think that's actually what happened. Sorry.

Actually, I think I met the coolest famous person today that I'll ever meet. You can't possibly guess who this is. I had to look him up.

Anthony Zerbe. Go ahead. I'll wait.

He bought the new Updike. He was quiet and polite. I sheepishly admitted I'd never read a word of Updike. He seemed affronted, holding his chin very high. He looks directly at you the entire conversation. Have you read Delillo? No, I said, turning red. Cormac? Yes! (Thank God!) Suttree. It was hilarious, which I'm told is rare for him. [Brief McCarthy discussion, in which he recommended the Border Trilogy.] He asked about one more I hadn't heard of (I wrote it down). I have a laundry list of things I should have gotten to, I said. He sighed. You're lucky. You still get to read them for the first time. I know exactly what you mean, I said. We said goodnight, and he left.

Acting captain's log, USS UOGTSC, Entry 135.

Okay! Another problematically eclectic collection of unrelated topics and meanderings. But as they say in Bucharest, Fuck you that!
(Not true.)

Wow. It's amazing I'm not writing opening zingers for Conan O'Brien. Anyway.

So much talk of gaming lately. It must be rather alienating for any potential readers that aren't that interested in that topic. [shrug] What can you do? I'm going to delay my MoCCA stuff for when I get my SD card reader back (it's in Turkey; long story) so that I can photograph my haul, and give myself time to tweak and hem and haw about my complaining, which I'm uncomfortable about (nerds being infamous and intolerable whiners) but unwilling yet to forsake my right of complaint, blah blah. (See? That's why it still needs tweaking.) Also, there should be a new podcast next week, which very well might contain a casette purchased at MoCCA from Picturebox, probably my favorite vendor there, but that's for next time.

So what is this post about, then, anyway? (And could you take any longer in getting there?)


Well... manga, for starters.

Haven't done any scanlations in a while, so let's remedy that. As a refresher, a scanlation is simply a scan with translated text superimposed over the original language. Legally it's flat-out prohibited, of course. Logically, it's simply an inevitability as manga gains more and more steam amongst an international audience, some segment of which is bound to be dissatisfied with the majority of titles that are safe enough investments for companies working to localize, many of which fold and drop series mid-run regardless. Not that individuals and groups involved in scanlation don't drop their share of titles as well... but the odds are certainly better that another group of passionate fans will pick up a series where it was dropped than another company acquiring the rights and picking up a dropped localized series that has already proven itself a domestic market failure.

[Sigh] Yup... it's our old friend. The Copyfight.

And of course there's the dark side to scanlation, where groups make available free versions of titles which are commercially available, helping make a tough marketplace even tougher. I wish I could say that I've taken a firm stance in this regard, but the fact is that I'm actually, in my own relatively small way, part of the problem. And have been (gently) called out on it. (Of course it would be by a Canadian.) I've given it a lot of thought, and am still struggling to come to a decision. I considered writing to the author of the article and requesting that he remove the link to my site (which has gotten minimal traffic through the referral anyway), but really, that's not the solution. I could reference the modesty of the actual amount of page hits, and the comparative near non-existence of evidence of actual reading of the material based on number of page views in excess of, say, 15, but that is, of course, a cop out. (Aw hell. Even as I write this is it gets another hit.) The easiest thing would be to just take it down. Or there's the pirate/fan's standard moral balm; that if you love the material you should consider shelling out for it; in effect passing the buck.

Perhaps I'm simply blowing it out of proportion. It's possible that someone from Fantagraphics has seen it and elected not to ask for its removal (which would be granted without bitterness). Or that I can instead call myself an early English-language supporter of a talent in manga of great importance and historical significance, helping lay a groundwork of a potential readership for what seems a safe bet (as if such a thing existed) of an inevitable localization effort of the sort recently and commendably undertaken by those brave Drawn & Quarterly folks. (More Canadians.)

We're talking about a single story in a six year old magazine.

I'm open to reader's thoughts and opinions. (I'm tempted to ask Dirk Deppey directly, as he's essentially responsible for my interest in the entire world of scanlation, and thus alternative manga as a whole, but he would have a clear conflict of interest. Jon? You're smarter than I am with regard to this stuff. What do you think?)


Some recap!

Sorry, Ryan.S, you've almost certainly already seen these since I found them on scanlation sites that I never would have found if you hadn't linked to them. That being said, this extends our scanlation circle past just Kotonoha and Mangascreener. It could be considered the fringes of a fringe scene, or an opportunity to have something you've read that you're unlikely to ever have in common with anyone you meet for the rest of your life. If you're into that.

For clarity and credit where it's due, I didn't scanlate any of these strips. I just love them. See links for more information on any strip. The folks that make these available originally have incredible taste and talent in translation, and are basically heroes in my mind, somehow. Is that weird?

So as to present all three strips back to back we'll do titles and credits of those responsible for their creation and their availability to an English speaking audience. They are as follows:

Paradise Town Chapter 1 by Nikaido Masahiro, scanlated by Wanted: Cheap Manga. (Chapters 1-4, chapters 5-7.)
Zombie Oldie by Karasawa Nawoki, scanlated by Wanted: Cheap Manga.
The Deadly Dried Squid Technique by Yoshiharu Tsuge, scanlated by Kitten Patriot.

[To be read right to left.]

















Today's not one of those days when I feel much capable of insightful or interesting commentary. See you in the comments? Yeah.

So what else? Tetris! (Thanks, Offworld!)

Firstly, though I have always had limited Tetris exposure due to my lack of GameBoy, anyone who cares to take a second can see that it can't be called insignificant.

At least, the British don't seem to think so. (Now you don't have to go to your grave without knowing the hilarious drama that went into this weird Iron IP drama.)













I'm going to work my way through this again and try to pinpoint where exactly the string of licensee/liscensor distribution rights went completely fucking awry. (I've narrowed it down to Britain immediately following the Hungarian "computer centers.") Like a copyright skeet shoot.

Wait... is that where that skeet skeet thing that my friend wouldn't shut up about comes from? Am I so old and white that it takes me months to figure out a ridiculous hip-hop reference? Apparently so. Assuming I'm right. Joe, this seems like the type of thing you'd know.

What else? There's E3, but since I don't have a single positive thought on it I'm going to see if I can't boil it down into some kind of bullet point minimalist thing. Basically, Ueda's going to rip my heart out or I'm going to have to live without him. Which if I want to be melodramatic I could say they're the same thing. [sob]



Still, it's not as if I can feign dissatisfaction with my current options. I beat Gamma Bros on a full play-through, which was epic, and got the good ending no less! Also, I decided to stop nibbling at N's edges and dive in whole hog, and beat the first two and a half columns. Two new character colors, over 100 levels, and some absolutely ecstatic moments of victory and satisfaction. Below are two of my favorite episodes of five levels each.

Happy Anniversary, Underworld Trip.

I just beat Underworld Trip by Nekogames.

Beat as in collected all of the available endings, which I present to you below for perusal. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a game enough to warrant collecting much of anything, never mind endings. (Which I almost certainly wouldn't have done if you couldn't beat it in 10 minutes after you master it.) What a beautiful game.


Also, the blog is two years old tomorrow, I think. So there's that. (The archives might not be as great as I've somehow always told myself they are. Ah well. That just means I'll have to do a retrospective. Two years, dead. Same dif. But at least I get my pick of afterlives. Collectors always win [my life motto].)

Big World 10; or a podcast, then [censored] phallus.

05.27.09
New podcast! It's been long in coming, but here we are again. For the first time, here's the playlist courtesy of thumb-drive DJing. I'm like Johnny Mnemonic, but with more "data capacity." (Quite a bit more, in fact.)


The broad overview is acid-freak Arthurian legend into lo-fi African hip-hop into some excellent vintage Japanese blues-rock into chiptune into some rather mind-bending gravelly singing-ish hip-hop (you have to hear it to imagine).






It's a pretty damn good show this time out, and I'm not a little proud of it. Don't mind the moment in each of the first two songs when it cuts out for a second. Our laptop hard-drive is apparently suffering a slow death, but D.J.O.E. (my regular co-host, for those new to the show) was able to transition over to the actual recording/broadcasting laptop, and everything proceeded just fine after that. He literally saved the show, probably not for the first or last time, either. Let's say extended commentary in the comments field. (Let me know if there's any problem with the Mega Upload file, as it was acting pretty weird.)


Okay, I don't usually write much about the YouTube videos, but these... these warrant a disclaimer. A put your kids to bed, NSFW... Vern would have a seizure if she watched these. Ah, I got it. That's why I find myself drawn to them. They're genuinely scary, something I haven't experienced in a long time. If these don't freak you out and just impress the hell out of you, there is something wrong with either your eyes or head.

They're so deadly serious that the YouTube comments aren't even about sex?! I've almost never seen that before.

It could be dangerous. It could be diseased.

ALF








Which I believe are from Andrew Hussie, half of the team Jandrew Edits that brought us that lovely Star Trek TNG fan edit series found a few posts back, of which there are some new ones, as well. (Those Alf videos have been continually drawing me in and freaking me out all fucking week. Three cheers for the corruption of a more innocent era.)





And lastly, something I've been sitting on for quite a while, waiting for a good post to append them to. Unfortunately, if I intend to work my way through the entire series it will have to be portioned out over (let's see) about seven posts. Alright, enough stalling.


Famicase
If I have any readers that diligently trawl the gaming scene sites that I link to then they'll already be aware of the Famicase exhibit, put on annually by Meteor, a Tokyo games shop. Every year they ask artists, designers, illustrators, and assorted sundry creative folk to design a label for an invented and imagined Famicom game cartridge. Similar to the vintage paperback game-cover redesigns, or that Criterion meme that was circulating for a while, except in this case divorced from any actual game. It's a really great project with some stunningly fantastic results.

The American gaming sites that have linked to it have reposted a few of the pieces, but they all neglect to mention that each label is accompanied by a fictitious company logo, which are almost all equally interesting and well designed. I only just started collecting these in addition to the actual labels, as I think they'll function quite nicely as inspiration and motivation in the design of my rubber stamp, the necessary missing element of my business card, which I am fairly happy with so far.

The link for the 08 collection changed when they uploaded the 09 show, but it's still out there. (It took me a lot of agonized trawling to turn it up at all.) Take a look if you haven't already.

Notice anything? Each cartridge also has an accompanying description in text. Oh man, I thought, what I would give to be fluent in Japanese. But... there's always machine translation, right? Which, though obviously being astronomically removed from genuine authentic translation, at least gives another degree of insight into what the original designer had been thinking about their game's concept or premise when they made the artwork. So here's the first eight from the last two years collections with accompanying pseudo translation. Some of them are more clear than others, but I found them to be very illuminating and entertaining nonetheless.

Famicase 08
Games 1-8


"KASETTOBASHI"
CONSUMERS / musician & designer Official Site
Use the original NES console, cassette discharged (ejected) out of how soft competition. Cassette used, certified by the Association KASETTOBASHI TYPE-A ~ G (classified by weight) only, except when using the cassette as it is no official record. Criteria, to range upwards, the horizontal distance of the land, art (acting air) determined by total points. The current world record July 15, 2006 in Sydney on Sunday "KASETTOBASHI Summer 2006" by her in the SARAN BERUNADETTO of France won the 158.2 points


"Whale noise"
2g (NIGURAMU) / Official Site cartoonist and illustrator
Your FC up to the front of the connector 20 can be connected. Four-way controller with a side of the controller 2 controls the audible noise from the controller. (2 Please listen to it in the controller) you will hear a channel is good for something better. Maybe we can hear the voices of the whales if you're lucky


"FAMILY CONTROLLED 303"
Die / KetchupArts Hondalady
FC was released in 1988, music production software that uses the instrument. Rhythm software was released simultaneously, FC-606 is a unified design, the two cars side by side in a rock band! Copy, that is called a hot topic on the band, for the same period a vague way, was not popular. But the music scene of 1990 that occurred in late age, with this software in ACID BIT MUSIC, can enter the limelight. Fewer number of releases, because the manufacturers have gone bankrupt in the secondhand market is still rising in value.


"LOVE LOVE FAVORITHOLD 48"
Enami Tadashi Akira / T-shirt shop
○ like her on-screen long played the sexy one that we pose, pose取RI続KE through time in the time limit or use the hands and feet anywhere in the matte screen shows all clear to 48 aspects 1P mode.
○ touch anywhere who played alternately in the two great approach to losing and losing RABURABUMODO 2P pose either. And friends! And love! My husband! Family! Satisfactorily married couples, love, accomplishment.決MERO take all the tricks of love必殺Now! ! Family Trainer mat software included


"FAMIKASEROKKU"
Yuppy / office worker
FAMIKONSEKYURITISOFUTO. Registration screen is displayed and PIN number to start the software, plug in a cassette. And lock the cassette body to register a PIN, enter your PIN unless you have registered, you can not remove the cassette. By using this software, prevents the parents of the children for a long time to gameplay. Also, included up to my friends at home, the act that prevents FAMIKONPUREI. ※ Please never stop because you will damage the body and force cassette抜KOU


"PIGEON RACING"
Tetsuya八川/ FrogPort manager
That pigeon racing is an elegant sport handed down from 5000 BC. Kimi is the owner of a mating pigeon racing, training, pigeon race held in and around training.目指SE won the race to win a prosperous and demanding to be only a few percent evasion rate! ! Reflect the current position of racing pigeons is love GHPS (pigeons global positioning system) you can check real-time flight status feature! !


"DIGUBAGU"
President Muscat / enthusiast Scratch
Technical bugs WAKASHI賑was a lot of tricks of the magazine section at the game, it was built in secret in the game using the bug! It is points to a bug discovered during play, taking out and putting on a cassette while the coercive power to be an expert, you can make a screen appearance hides a new bug in high score or to replace . What is it good for bugs but it shook a little weak in NES console is more vibration, and strong-arm tactics that were popular on stage and warp back in time to the body vibrated. You can clear the true 256W?


"DOLPHIN ISLAND 2"
KOKOSAC / Artists
DORUFINAIRANDO regained his peace of peach and Sola. Sola incident occurs in the world back to reality from the game. Be rewritten by someone DORUFINAIRANDO of peace programs, the return of Satan will have trouble beating. Games had a cassette, and we are caught in Satan classmates. Find Sola programmers in the real world.乗RI込MI the game world instead of Sola, AISHA classmates head to recapture. 2 beaten while visiting the world of Satan, that I can save someone's classmate.


Famicase 09
Games 1-8


"True hunting octopus"
Kuske (KPLECRAFT) / Musician
The offensive stars of the Octopus!
And this is a monster with the Legion!
It's bad!


"What is the weather (sunny and cloudy Tokyo)"
[JP] TV "DCT-Channel" and is your job to forecast the weather on a weather map of the Japan Meteorological Agency announced. As faithful viewers, please choose the weather. Remove CHATTARA If N ○ K might get people watching. Good luck


"BABURISHINSESAIZA"
2PLAYER OTANI (SEXY-SYNTHESIZER) Official Site
All gold world, gold, gold action games. BABURI world and mind of the enemy to his knees and tossed a wad of money. If less money, earned in the casino and gambling baccarat. Natural Nine NAISUDORO! Let's Xeni ZENIGEBA ... crazy SHUSENDO ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥


"Dr. Land Puzzle virus"
2g (NIGURAMU) / dishwasher meat
The virus comes down
Disappears and the next three rows of two viruses in the same color?
Vanish and the two vertical rows of two viruses of the same form?
Surrounding the virus disappears in the same?
More random in each round of change in rules 500
Put out to find a rule against the virus before the ever-increasing,
Ride off! (The chain is a genius, if possible.)


"Mei tei oh (king drunk)"
CAP / office worker
King win the seat of drunkenness, drinking good wine in the world!
New sense of inability to control game action.
Several attempts to clear the stage while enjoying the state of drunkenness.
And would destroy the tourist rush to the stage to a minus ...
Beyond the level of Z-grade B zetto The gift is a memorable series.


"All you can eat meat."
Kaori Baba / Graphic Designer
Ride meat eat eat eat! Each time you clear a stage, upgrade the menu. You can eat the meat and roast rare luxury. The bonus stage is a quiz challenge cult by friend roast roast! Roast chain if all the games, "he cow" can be used at all 800 stores will be distributing discount coupons. ※ 2000 valid at least


"Twilight TV"
Hasegawa Shiyunsuke / office worker
I have not seen, I want them. Let's become such a television lighting. Firefly or jellyfish, or any other TSUKIYODAKE photogen, fire, moonlight, stars, features a variety of light situations such as night scenes big world 10. Emission patterns and fluctuations, the analysis of tone, a bit combination of art reproduced in taste. Sub lighting.
* Timer function
* UP lighting effect from the attachment and not included in the sale.


"Zan cans - ends Kang -"
Asami / GURAFIKKA
I wish I can say I listen to country and even her cat Eitz also. Cans worth of them around (values) to the hole, go to your own values KAKIMAWASHI stuck in GUTCHAGUCHA the contents, being a dictator of the world! Now let's not cooperate! I倒SOU the hearts of everyone! R11 SAITEADOBENCHA designated as a RPG. "You're the values of the Rain!"