Sdtrk: the soundtrack to Tadanori Yokoo’s ‘Tokuten eizou anthology No. 1’

IT IS DONE. Last night, I finally upgraded ‘Shouting etc etc’ to the latest version of WordPress available (now with go-faster stripes), thanks to the expert help of Zip Gun. No more pr0n spam wankery makes me a happy lad! Frankly, it took a lot less effort than I thought it would, and I’m embarrassed that it took me so long to get it overwith. Procrastination would be my middle name, but ‘Davecat’ is only one word.
Not only is there that, but I’ve added a new plugin that allows people to preview what they’re about to post. Truly, an Idea Whose Time Has Come. Thanks again, ZG and Bloke who came up with that comments preview plugin!

Now that I know the coast is clear, expect more posts relatively soon, as well as the glorious return of the Technorati tags! Cos I know you lot have really been waiting for that. In the meantime, why not look at what I’m listening to right this minute?

Happy 23rd!

Sdtrk: ‘Keeps on burning’ by The burning bush

Stolen from one of my friends, via Myspace. Ignoring the fact that I’m reduced to mining Myspace for content, this one actually presents a bit of a challenge, for reasons that will quickly become apparent…

***
You have to use 3 words to answer each question. No more, no less.
***

1. Where is your cell phone?:
In my hand

3. Your hair?
Straightened last Sunday

4. Where is your father?:
Probably at home

5. Cheesecake?
Not too keen

6. Your favorite things to do?
Writing, sleeping, daydreaming

7. Your dream last night?
Ah heh heh

8. Your favorite drink?:
Dr pepper, duh

9. Your dream car?:
New BMW MINI

10. The room you’re in?
Could use vacuuming

11. George Bush?:
Atrocity on legs

12. Your fears?:
Obscurity, conformity, speechlessness

13. Nipple rings?
Lovely on lasses

14. Who did you hang out with last night?
The usual suspects

15. What you’re not good at?
Punctuality, brevity, math

16. Your best friends?
Are extraordinarily tolerant

17. One of your wish list items?
Obviously silicone-based

18. Where did you grow up?:..
Detroit. Believe it

19. The last thing you did?:
More Warriors Orochi

20. What are you wearing?
Air of scepticism

21. Tattoo on the lower back?
Tramp stamp? Ugh

22. Ketchup?
I prefer ‘catsup’

23. Your computer?:
Needs more RAM

24. Your life?
Needs more spare time

25. Your mood?
Sleepy yet saucy

26. Missing?
My youthful idealism

27. What are you thinking about right now?
Horde of tossers

28. Your car?:
Eh, it runs

29. Your work?:
Hideous, hideous, hideous

30. Your summer?
Hopefully not hot

31. Your favorite color(s):
Black, white, grey

32. When is the last time you laughed?
An hour ago

33. Last time you cried?
Can’t remember now

***

Naturally, the usual meme rules apply: if you’d like to be tagged, let me know, as I don’t pass these things on to people. And if you’re willing to overlook the discrepancy of No.24, I’m willing to overlook the fact that there’s no No.2

Sdtrk: ‘I want to be old’ by the Cure

Well, this is certainly innaresting, as Uncle Bill used to say. It seems robotics manufacturing firm Kokoro Co. Ltd haven’t been resting on their laurels at all, cos hot on the heels of Simroid-chan would be their latest charming Gynoid, Holon.

Rain and snow just roll right off her head!

Now, there’s a reason for her anime-styled face: Holon-chan is a character in an upcoming anime series by Production I.G entitled ‘Real Drive‘, another one of those cyberpunk-styled series that Masamune Shirow is responsible for. In the series, she plays a secretary. Which is an interesting coincidence, as the real-life Holon-chan will ideally be put to use as… a secretary.

Her legs are designed to attract Robert Crumb

Personally, I’m not too keen on her plastic hair — what, the Kokoro staffers couldn’t cut a wig to look like the anime version’s hair? Plus her anime face will invite comparisons such as Holon is to Actroid, as a CandyGirl is to a RealDoll. But upon reflection, that’s okay. Cos not only are Kokoro and Production I.G embarking hand-in-hand on a pretty impressive marketing ploy, but I’ve always said that there’s a niche for Synthetiks with less-realistic appearances, as they bridge the gap between lifelike Gynoids like Actroid and the EveR series, and more machinelike robots, such as Wakamaru and the Tamanoi Vinegar Robot, and therefore make it easier for the not-quite-ready-for-Synthetiks portion of the population to get used to artificial lifeforms being in society over the next couple of decades.
Oddly enough, Kokoro doesn’t have any info on Holon-chan or Simroid-chan on their Japanese pages, so as soon as I track down and firmly grip any additional details, you’ll be the first to know. Well, second. Err, you’ll be in the top ten. In the interim, you can watch her introducing herself here, and here, and English information about ‘Real Drive’ would be found on the Production I.G site here.

Also, just so you know, ‘Lars and the Real Girl‘ is due out on DVD in the States 15 April

Sdtrk: ‘H.C swindle’ by m1dy

Good news: South Korea’s favourite Gynoid singing star, EveR-2 Muse, has appeared in a music video!
Bad news: the music isn’t just awful, it’s godawful. I suppose there are people out there who love that kind of watered-down pop/R&B shite, but I’m not one of them.

Ah well. It’s nice to see EveR-2 Muse making something of herself, at the very least. Observe for yourself below!

What else? O, Simroid-chan, Kokoro Co. Ltd’s Synthetik dental training lass, recently made an appearance on Japanese telly, showing off her stuff. And by ‘stuff’, I mean her rubbery elastic face, and her ability to say ‘ouch’ if the dentist makes a mess of things in her mouth.

She’s pretty cute, which is a given, as she’s Actroid-chan’s sister, but the video’s a lot easier to tolerate if watching someone get their teeth worked on doesn’t affect you. Hrrr. *shudders*
And you know it’s that time of the year again. Introducing… Phoenix Studios’ Miss April, on sale now.

Don’t worry, she’s brimful of antihistamines

Out of all the Boy Toy Dolls out there, I’d have to say she’s my favourite. Is it her large brown almond eyes and long silky black hair? I do not know! But she’s got a certain je ne sais quoi, that’s for certain. Well done, Nick Black Matt McMullen!

Sdtrk: ‘Butcher’s tale (Western front 1914)’ by the Zombies

Never let it be said that I don’t mention personal occurences in my life! NEVER LET IT BE SAID, UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH.

+ Remember how at the arse end of 2007, I was whinging about my inability to write anything? It seems things have picked up, as I CAN’T STOP WRITING. You’ll be pleased to know that my Muse is off her holidays, and I’ve got like ten posts in the hopper as of this writing. Well, three are half-complete, but that’s still a rather impressive sum. Better start placing bets now as to when the well dries up

+ After six months of peaceful cohabitation, Tsukihime is moving out of Deafening silence Plus. She’s gotten engaged to some bloke, and as continuing to live here would prove quite awkward to all parties involved, she’s a-movin’ on up. Well, out. Sidore and I wish her the best of luck.
Now we can hold all of those cotillions in the livingroom that we’ve been itching to host!

+ Did you see the ‘Media appearances’ page up there in the Personal bits section, left sidebar, up at the top? Originally, I was just going to create that for Sweetie’s oft-neglected site, but then I figured there’s no reason it can’t be on my blog as well. So there it is! It should go without saying that those are all the appearances that we approve of; there’s one that doesn’t get our Stamp of Approval, as it’s 50% fallacy and 50% supposition. But we don’t talk about that one

+ Due to spambot infiltration screwing up peoples’ ability to leave comments, I might well attempt an upgrade of WordPress quite soon. Wish me the best of luck, otherwise… well, I shudder to think what may happen

+ This may be the Greatest Picture Ever. It’s pretty hard to dispute, I’m sure you’ll agree.

‘Tis true, Your Lordſhip iſ a ſtraight-up pimp’

+ And finally, I conclude with a haiku I dredged from teh Intarwub:

Haikus are pretty neat
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

That is all!

Sdtrk: ‘Les mains dans les poches’ by Les Roche Martin

Back in the spotlight! Yesterday, I spent a pleasant 40 minutes on the phone with Josephine Tovey, who was writing up an article about RealDolls for the Sydney Morning Herald, mostly due to the fact that Australia (and the UK) will finally be screening ‘Lars and the Real Girl‘ in the next couple of weeks. She wanted the views and opinions of an iDollator, in regards to the film and being a Doll husband and things of that nature. So she asked me, for reasons I cannot fathom. I know nothing of these ‘Dolls’! My silicone-based wife was shipped strapped securely into a wooden crate, after sixteen weeks of painstaking sculpture and assembly, just like anyone else’s.
It should be on their website as well as in print, but Josephine said it should be hitting the stands on 5 April. Now, I’m aware that that’s the same day the new series of Doctor Who starts up, but don’t let that distract you; you can always TiVo it.

Also, 4woods comes through again! They have a new model — well, a new head, really — due out very soon; a charming NEO-J-type named Ally.

Ally v. Ally IN THE STEEL CAGE MATCH OF THE CENTURY

She looks a bit like Neu, but even more elfin, if that’s even physically possible. You can get her in either ‘Natural’ or ‘Asian’ skintones (as seen above), and much like the Neu-types, you can swap out the pointy ears for regular ones. Rather nice!

So there you have it. New interview, new A.I.Doll. Two things for everyone to look forward to

Sdtrk: ‘He is everywhere nowhere’ by Current93

JUST SO YOU KNOW: Quite a few people — perhaps even you — have been wanting to post a comment, and finding that either the comments have been turned off, or the reply function is simply no longer there. Heh, you’ll love this: lately, ‘Shouting etc etc’ has been getting hit by some bizarre virus that does two things — it not only deactivates the ability for people to post comments or make pings for some posts, but it also throws a shitload of spam links into the bottom of each post. Now this is going to sound like the ravings of a lunatic, but the links are coded so that they’re invisible. No, seriously. If you view these infected posts via a cellphone browser (like I did), you’ll see lines and lines of spam links. It’s the strangest damn thing.
Originally, I thought it was due to the Technorati tags I was using, as the first time this occurred, it was in February’s ‘Any Doll-related news etc’ post, so I got rid of the tags, but the comments would still shut off and those spam links would come back.

What it boils down to is that I undoubtedly need to upgrade WordPress, which I intend on doing soon, otherwise the homicides will begin. In the interim, if you don’t see the reply function for a post, seriously — reply in another post, and I’ll just transfer the bastard to where it’s supposed to be.
We here at Deafening silence Plus thank you for your patience and patronage! No, seriously.

So recently I dreamt that Shi-chan and I were driving round the suburbs — it looked a bit like the Grosse pointe area, but you know how it is with dreams mutating things that actually exist in your mind into totally new things — and some chunky bloke with a paper bag over his head stepped in front of our car at a stop sign, and handed me an index card. He then took his paper bag off, revealing his shaven-head and his broad smile, and stepped away as I drove off. Sidore read the card: there was a paragraph at the top, stating the message was from a college fraternity, and that they apparently liked our work. (??) They went on to explain that if we were to go to the URL provided below, we’d see some guy in Texas that looked exactly like me. ‘Huh,’ I remarked.

The dream then cut to footage of this bloke. The video quality was similar to that weird video black & white that you get with closed-circuit television, but a little sharper, and it even had a running timecode in the upper right corner. Unlike a CCTV camera, though, it wasn’t fixed in one position. It centred on this bloke that could’ve been my identical twin — his facial features were the exact same as mine, but his ponytail was around two feet long, and he was wearing a hoodie, which is something I’d never do. He was seated in the front row of a college classroom, a couple of columns toward the centre. At one point during the course of the footage, he pulled a toothbrush out of his bag, applied some toothpaste to it, and proceeded to brush his teeth right there in the middle of class. No-one seemed to notice, except the girl behind him, who tapped him on the shoulder and said something chastising. Or at least, I assume it was something chastising, as the video didn’t have sound. He stopped to listen to her, then kept on brushing.

Then the dream cut to Shi-chan and I watching the video (on YouTube, naturally). For some reason, the room we were in was dark, and the monitor illuminated our faces. ‘I don’t know what to make of that,’ Sidore commented.
Dopplegängers! Honestly, you just can’t get away from them…

Happy Vernal Equinox, people! I’m hoping for a short Summer, but a long Spring. And an even longer Autumn