Links kilns slink links (you can’t get a lot of anagrams out of a five-letter word)

typed for your pleasure on 11 October 2010, at 8.32 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Now or never’ by Polish Radio Orchestra

Been quite a while since I’ve dumped a mess of links upon you! A big sloppy bucket of links all over you, all in your hair and down your shirt. You should probably go wash that off before it dries. Don’t forget to burn those clothes as well!

+ In a way, I’m glad that Deafening silence Plus is just large enough, as if it were larger, I’d probably be indulging in my love of technological white elephants. And if I had more money, that is. ‘Technological white elephants’ is a term coined by sexy Eighties Goth siren Danielle Dax that describes obsolete technology or devices that, for whatever reason, didn’t catch on and last in the minds of the general public. Things like the RCA VideoDisc, or the ondes Martenot, or the Nintendo VirtualBoy (I own two — don’t ask, it’s a long story). I’m fairly sure the TwitterPeek will be joining you lot shortly.


Hear that? That’s the sound of Planned Obsolescence

Puts Smart Phones and Twitter Apps to Shame!

No more waiting for tweets to download or clicking the “more” button to see old tweets.

TwitterPeek’s “always on” tweet delivery makes it a snap to follow 100’s of people throughout the course of your day. Best of all, you don’t have to spend $100/month on an expensive smartphone data plan to get Twitter on-the-go.

It must be an interesting and fanciful world the creators of TwitterPeek live in. Honestly, it’s not a bad product, but 1) it’s very very specific, and 2) the masses would’ve bought these feckers by the carton back in 2006, when Twitter first started. Or maybe a year after that; some people are undoubtedly still smarting over the whole ‘Friendster‘ thing.
I just tried to search for a used TwitterPeek on the Bay of e, but came up empty-handed. There is no such thing as a consumer item that is created and isn’t resold at some point, which kinda says to me that… no-one’s buying TwitterPeeks?? *cue minor chord*

+ Speaking of social vortexes, Wil ‘sorry, can’t save the Enterprise, too busy Tweeting’ Wheaton has some very lucid things to say about that other social networking timewaster:

Now, as long as I have your attention and I’m talking about Facebook: I think that Facebook is evil, guys. I believe that Facebook is making gazillions of dollars by exploiting its users, and Facebook doesn’t give a shit about how its users feel about that. The only reason Facebook has made any changes to their laughable privacy policies recently is because the company was looking at legal action, and was in danger of losing money.

Personally, I think you should delete your Facebook account and wait for Disapora to get going. I know that’s unlikely, though, because Facebook has become a useful and convenient way to stay in touch with people you care about. But please, please consider the consequences of trading privacy for convenience, and think about this, from Newsweek:

If you really expect this company to suddenly become trustworthy, you’ve lost your mind. Over the past five years Facebook has repeatedly changed its privacy policy, always in one direction, and every time this happens, the same movie plays out. People complain. Facebook stonewalls, then spins, then pretends to be contrite, then finally walks things back—but only a little.

the entire article is here

As for me, I’ve already said my piece on Facebook and how I think it’s rubbish, so I’ll not go on about it. But what Will’s saying and what others have been saying, not using Facebook is something to consider.
And will I go see ‘The Social Network’? If it were a scenario where the proceeds from every ticket for that film went to stopping Facebook, I’d see it once a day. Apart from that, should I suddenly decide there’s absolutely nothing else more important that I need to be doing with my life, then perhaps. And more than likely, I won’t pay to do it.

+ This domicile would more than likely fit nicely into the ‘This IS the Future’ category if I had one. *checks sidebar* Just making sure. I give you: Ring House, located in Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture, Japan, and built by architects Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima.


Sadly, the fog is not included

The Ring House is wrapped in rings of glass and wood and has an uninterrupted 360-degree view of the forest. […] TNA designed rings around the facade so that areas of private space and utilities could be met. The height of each ring was decided by the function concealed behind it. The glass between the rings allow you to look straight into the forest, so the whole house appears to dissolve into the forest.
taken from this site

+ As I’m sure every one of you have done, I’ve lain awake at night, wondering aloud ‘when will someone write a yakuza-based Choose Your Own Adventure story??’ Well, despite the fact that it’s online only, as opposed to a printed work, this page on the site Infinite Story proves that Dreams Can Come True.

You pour the last of your now semi-warm sake from the carafe into your ceramic choko. It fills the shallow glass only halfway and you sip from it slowly, trying to draw out the time. Down the bar from you is a group of sararimen who are getting steadily drunker and louder. From their slurred speech, you gather they are celebrating the fact that their division has made its quarterly projections for the second time, or something bullshit like that. “Fucking peasants…” you grumble not too quietly between sips of sake, but the sararimen do not hear it because they are busy toasting themselves again.

Your name is Shinji Takagawa, a member of the notorious Yamashita Syndicate in Tokyo, and you’ve been sitting at this sushi bar for the last four hours silently eating, getting drunk, and watching game shows with the sound turned off on the plasma screen TV behind the bar. Usually this sushi bar is pretty quiet place to kill an evening, but these drunken sararimen are making it intolerable. When the waitress comes to see if you need another drink, you just grunt that you want your bill.
the rest of the story is here

Unfortunately midway through the story, your ability to actually make choices is halted, and it turns into a straightforward fictional narrative. But it still gets major Cool Points for the concept overall.

+ If the Missus and I had a cat — Shironeko doesn’t count, in this instance, unfortunately — if it were a male, we would totally get him one of these: a kitty necktie.


That’s something I’d wear. Good choice, little guy! That had better
not be a clip-on, though; that’s just lazy

And yes, they offer feather boas for the lady kitties as well. Pair some dapper cats up with ones wearing Kitty Wigs, have a bartender pouring Bradfords into water dishes for everyone, and you’d have a stylish little party!

So there you are! All these links are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace

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Looking backwards is looking forwards on February 23rd, 2013


IT IS LINK MAGICK

typed for your pleasure on 24 December 2008, at 7.08 pm

Sdtrk: ‘Turritopsis’ by To kill a petty bourgeoisie

Links! It’s like likes, it’s like licks. It’s even a bit like lax!
I, ah, don’t know where I was going with that.

+ Having recently popped round the forum on Broadcast’s official site, hoping to find some news of a new album, cos with each release they lose a member, and soon, the band will be reduced to just Trish playing a theremin by herself onstage, there was a thread concerning groups that sound similar to Broadcast. Two bands that struck my fancy: To kill a petty bourgeoisie, which are kind of a more dissonant and soundtracky collision of the Sixties-era BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound with Shoegazer, and The new lines, which is headed by Hewson Chen, formerly of the late-lamented indie-synthpop duo Vitesse. I’ve been playing the hell out of ‘dc1’ and ‘th case fr public organisation’ on their Myspace player. And soon, you will be too! I guarantee it

+ Almost twenty years ago, David Lynch filmed a perfectly normal little television series called ‘Twin Peaks‘ in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington. Recently, some obsessive has undertaken a project to photograph various locations that were used in the series, to show what they look like now. If nothing else, you have to admire his determination


The Double R Diner, then


(Not quite) The Double R Diner, now

+ People with more time and scissor dexterity than myself are rather keen on papercraft, which is a hobby centred round cutting out pre-printed shapes, folding them up, and slotting them together, resulting in all manner of amusing objects. A prime example would be what you can find on cubeecraft. ‘Download, Print, Cut, Fold’ as they say there. They boast a growing array of characters in .pdf form as well, such as Number Six from The Prisoner, or Oh Dae-Su from ‘Oldboy’, or Brock Samson, or the Prince from Katamari Damacy, just to give a few examples. So why not fire up the ol’ dot matrix and assemble a couple of your favourite characters, instead of sitting on the Internet all day… o, wait

+ Have you considered the humble tetrapod lately? Have you??


photo by kana_m

Hit the beach anywhere in Japan, and you are likely to see endless piles of tetrapods — enormous four-legged concrete structures intended to prevent coastal erosion. By some estimates, more than 50% of Japan’s 35,000-kilometer (22,000-mi) coastline has been altered with tetrapods and other forms of concrete. Critics, who blame the tetrapod invasion on decades of excessive government spending designed to bolster the construction industry, argue that in addition to posing a danger to swimmers, surfers and boaters, tetrapods actually accelerate beach erosion by disrupting the natural processes that shape the coastal environment. Meanwhile, others have developed an aesthetic appreciation of the tetrapod landscape, as evidenced by a host of stunning Japanese tetrapod photos on Flickr.
from a post on Pink Tentacle

I’ve always thought tetrapods were cool, but then, I would. Frankly, I’m surprised that there aren’t like significantly scaled-down versions that you could buy to use as home accents or whatnot. Think of it! Toy tetrapods! I’m hoping someone will take that particular ball and run with it

+ For nearly a decade, I’ve always gone on public record as being in love with the city of Toronto, Ontario, and wanting to eventually move there. But lately, I’ve been reconsidering. For instance, with the weather being as polar as it’s been in Michigan, what godforsaken arctic winds would I have to put up with the further north I were to go? So these days, my party line is Bye bye Toronto, Hello Milwaukee! And after viewing this informative video, I’m thinking I won’t be the only one to want to relocate there!

+ Finally, anyone who’s aware of my manias interests knows that I like squirrels. Not as much as cats, and certainly not on the level of one of my ex-coworkers who loved pigs and had about a billion pig-related pieces of ephemera all over her cubicle, but I think squirrels are endearing little critters. To that end, I give you (not literally) a purple squirrel.


STEP ONE: soak squirrel in bucket of grape Kool-Aid

Purple squirrel baffles experts
telegraph.co.uk | 12:38AM GMT 22 Dec 2008

A purple squirrel which appeared at a school has baffled experts who are unable to explain its colour.

Teachers and pupils at Meoncross School in Stubbington, Hants, were amazed when they saw the creature through the window during a lesson.

Since the squirrel, now nicknamed Pete, was first seen, it has become a regular fixture at the school but no one has been able to say whether the animal has fallen into purple paint, had a run-in with some purple dye, or whether there is another explanation.

Dr Mike Edwards, an English teacher, said: “I was sitting in my classroom and looked out the window and saw it sitting on the fence. I had to do a double take.

“Since then it’s been a bit of a regular at the school – everyone’s seen it.

“We thought it might have been paint or something but then when you look at it up close, it’s an all over coat, not in patches like you’d expect if it had been near some paint.

“Its fur actually looks purple all the way through. It’s an absolute mystery.”
the rest of the article is here

Looks a bit Photoshopped to me, but anything’s possible in this day and age, really. *coughthatcatwithtwosetsofearscough*

So you lot can keep yourselves busy with those! I might try to pop off one more post before the end of the year, but I’m going to give upgrading to the latest WordPress a go, so wish me luck that it doesn’t turn out like the last time I tried upgrading without proper adult supervision. Man. *shakes head*
In the meantime, Happy (belated) Festivus, and Happy Holikwanzimasnukkah! Hope it’s enjoyable for you all! And don’t forget that the Doctor Who 2008 Xmas special is on tomorrow, for those of you who have access to that sort of thing. Allons-y!


it’s a Link Rodeo (pronounced ‘ro-DAY-oh’)

typed for your pleasure on 20 August 2008, at 1.12 pm

Sdtrk: ‘I just wasn’t made for these times’ by the Beach boys

Summertime’s nearly overwith (thankfully), but it’s still sound advice to stay indoors where the air conditioning is and buy something online! After all, with US petrol prices hovering close to European levels, who wants to drive anywhere?

+ It’s… it’s lovely…

We at Coffincouches.com have the mindset of thinking “Green” and we know it is different but we strongly believe in recycling. Our niche happens to be 18 gauge steel coffins which we collected from local funeral homes primarily in Southern California. It is a health and safety law that funeral homes cannot resell used coffins to the general public. We approached funeral directors with the attitude of recycling. These coffins are not used for burial due to slight cosmetic inconsistencies. They are reconfigured and modified resulting in a finished product – a unique one a kind coffin couch.

null

YES. A COUCH MADE OUT OF AN ACTUAL COFFIN. I need to start making more money, so I can get a bigger place, so I can fit one of these bad boys into it. Just over there, at a right angle to my Eero Aarnio ball chair

+ Come to think of it, I’ll need money for a whole new house, so I can buy some land in Scotland, and have it built upon it.

Buy a Laird, Lady or Lord Title today!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to buy a title? For as little as $59.99 you can buy a noble title and your very own plot of land on an estate in Lochaber, in the Scottish Highlands. As a Scottish land owner you will be privileged to style yourself Laird, Lady or Lord of Lochaber.

The Laird title is the Scottish form of a Lord title, meaning “land owner” and by purchasing one of our range of plots you will become owner of your very own Highland Estate and Lord title – you choose how large an estate you want to own. Joint estates are available for couples.

You will be asked to provide us with the new Lord’s name when you place your order and we will swiftly deliver the fully personalised documents in a beautiful glossy full colour folder, shrinkwrapped to protect it in transit, and gift wrapped if desired. Whether it’s for yourself – or it is a gift, the pack is a delight to receive. You may use your land however you wish – feel free to take up residence if your Estate is large enough!

One of the things you get with your deed would be a heraldic crest of your very own. I’m tempted, so tempted… I mean, come on. Laird Davecat and Lady Sidore. Say that aloud, in a voice approximating Sean Connery’s for the full effect

+ This would be a very important test, that every one of us can use, that I found on das Interbutt.

How long could you survive in the vacuum of space?
Created by OnePlusYou

Cos y’know what? You never know when you may be forcibly ejected into the endless frigid vacuum that is Space Itself. You could even compose a haiku if you have enough time and a pen and paper!

Tumbling fast now
Explosion wrecks the capsule
This would be ggllarghaharrguhpfft

+ I really need to be reading ths more often: Overheard Everywhere. It’s rather like that Lewis Black joke about when he caught the tail end of a conversation from a lass on a cellphone ‘…and I would’ve gone back to college, if it weren’t for that horse!’, only for several high-larious pages.

Drunken wedding guest to videographer going from table to table: Zach*, I want to wish you and Jenny* many years of happiness, and I hope you get as much pleasure out of fucking her as I did.
Other guests at table: Erase that! Erase that!
Videographer: Are you kidding? This is like gold!

or

Professor: I think I popped a few Oxycontins before I wrote this so it might not make any sense.

or

Victoria’s Secret salesgirl to couple: Our bras are 15% off today.
Male: I prefer it when your bras are 100% off.
Victoria’s Secret salesgirl: [With a blank look on her face.] That wouldn’t make sense. Then they would be free.

Quality. In the air and everywhere

+ Also, allow me to geek out for a minute — no laughing, you — and say OMFG WATCHMEN!!1!
Although I’ve not seen ‘300’, the bloke who directed that handled ‘Watchmen’ and so far, it looks like he’s done a fine job with the visuals, at the very least. I’m actually excited to see this when it comes out next March, and I daresay it might be even be a faithful adaptation of one of my favourite graphic novel series of all time. As long as it doesn’t get fucked and waylaid like that atrocious, hideous, ill-handled, and smelly film version of ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’, I’ll be really happy. I might actually stop hating Hollywood for a couple of minutes! Although Alan Moore, the madman genius who wrote the story might not agree; he’s had a long history of Hollowwood taking liberties with adapting his works to the silver screen — ‘League’ would be a prime example — cos in looking over the credits, his name’s nowhere to be found… Still, I’m keeping my fingers tightly crossed

+ And finally, it appears that Paula ‘Botox-chan‘ Oliveira has A NEW CHALLENGER.

null
You will soon find this pic distracting / annoying / terrifying

I dub thee… Lockjaw-chan. Perhaps this is the effect she was going for?

ta very much to KrazyQ for Lockjaw-chan’s pic

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I'm such a lightweight on August 16th, 2006

Le tee hee on November 30th, 2006


Looks like links

typed for your pleasure on 1 March 2008, at 4.15 am

Sdtrk: ‘Winnipeg is a dogshit dildo’ by Venetian snares

More links to more effluvium! Will you click on them, or will they click on you?

+ Normally, something as pedestrian as a set of chocolates wouldn’t register at all on my radar. Unless — they happen to be shaped like miniature human skulls.


Make those skulls 1/1 scale, then we’ll talk

Loosely translated, MORI EX CACAO is Death by Chocolate – dangerously overwhelming indulgence. These marvelous and macabre chocolate skulls are among the most extravagant confections made today, notable for the excellence and purity of their ingredients and the intricacy of their design.

But egad, the set’s like $65 USD, and yes, you only get three. *shaking head disapprovingly* Neat concept, though

+ Remember that post I made a couple of years ago that was pretty much me gushing like a schoolgirl about how fab Japanese truck drivers’ gaudily-decorated vehicles are? As to be expected, they’ve made a game out of it in Japan. No no, you’re obviously thinking of Shin dekotora densetsu, but that was for the PS2. No, this one is called Zenkoku dekotora matsuri; it’s for the Nintendo Wii, and it looks lovely. Naturally, you can race against traffic and other trucks using the Wiichucks as a steering device, but since dekotora culture is all about pimpin’ yo’ torakku, yo, half the fun is kitting out your vehicle with gigantic chrome airhorns, multiple rows of lighting, and Japanese folklore-related airbrush artwork on the trailer sides. And for gods’ sakes, don’t forget your in-cabin chandelier!
It seems that games developer company Jaleco created this, and Shin dekotora densetsu. Which makes complete sense

+ So it seems cranky ol’ Warren Ellis, author of such heartwarming family-oriented graphic novels as ‘Transmetropolitan’ and ‘Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.’, has a new weekly online comic series called FreakAngels. It literally just started two weeks ago, so bookmark it now so you can tell your mates a couple of months down the line that you’ve been on the cutting edge ever since it started

+ It’s been well-documented that my opinion of Hollywood and what it produces is not exactly charitable; an accurate assessment of it that I read once somewhere was ‘Hollywood is a bunch of executives spraying shit at the world, and seeing what sticks’, but rarely, something comes out of that Babylonian hellhole that seems pretty cool, or at least, not entirely bad. Like the film Jumper, for instance. I’ve heard from reviews that it’s really not that good, but the concept is appealing enough to me — a man discovers he has the ability to teleport wherever at will, and is subsequently chased by a squad of assassins — where I wouldn’t mind seeing it. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I’d love to have a power like that, and I fully admit that I’d be abusing it too — in his apartment, you can see all sorts of articles that he undoubtedly ‘borrowed’ whenever he went somewhere. It might well be rubbish, but hopefully it’ll hold up to the trailer’s promise

+ It’s been well-documented that I’m a huge Joy division fan, so when I read about the new book ‘Fotoreportage23: In search of Ian Curtis‘, I became more than a little intrigued.

A photographic mapping of the places in the story of Joy Division and their singer Ian Curtis. And the space he left behind. With contributions from people who knew him, worked with him, or were just inspired by him and the music the band created. Pictures by Katja Ruge and words from, amongst others, Terry Mason, Peter Saville, Mark E. Smith, Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), Annik Honore, Bloc Party, The Rapture, Karl Bartos, Genesis P.Orridge, Johnny Marr (Modest Mouse, The Smiths), Mogwai, Maximo Park, Lindsay Reade, Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke), Anja Huwe (X mal Deutschland), Mark reeder and the late Tony Wilson.

You can place an order through the publisher’s site, Monitorpop, which is something I’ll be doing relatively soon

+ Kitty wigs. Kitty wigs?? Yeah, sure, why the hell not.


Someone’s filling a very specific niche

ta very much to Zip Gun and KrazyQ for some of the links

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Fusing Materialism with Esoterica

typed for your pleasure on 4 September 2007, at 12.30 am

Sdtrk: ‘Inner mind mystique 7’ by Masonna

Who likes Stuff? You like Stuff. Yes, you do. Here’s some Stuff that I like, that I think you’ll like too, if you think like I think.

+ Remember back in the days when you could easily tell the difference between house, acid, techno, rap, hip-hop, et al? Those were great days, but they’re long gone; now you need a scorecard to keep track of all the hybrids and mutations of the differing genres and offshoots of electronic music. Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music would be that scorecard. Between the various irreverent-yet-detailed descriptions and helpful samples, you’ll kill an hour there, guaranteed

+ These are Items Essential for Living, as seen on Wired’s website:


Left, an LED alarm clock that looks like a telly from the Seventies, and right, a reproduction in miniature of a late Shōwa-era Japanese livingroom, with A/V inputs for the functioning television. MUST HAVE BOTH NOW

+ I’ve never seen more than like half an hour of LOST, but I have friends that are addicted to that show. Recently, they told me about a new theatrical release in production by that show’s co-creator, J.J Abrams. By this point, I’m sure a lot of you know what I’m speaking of: the upcoming film referred to as either ’01-18-08′ or ‘Cloverfield’. If you’ve not seen the trailer yet, cast your gaze here, cos it’s kinda enticingly freakish in that whole post-Blair Witch-pseudo-reality context. It’ll be interesting to see if my own interest is maintained between now and when it comes out next year

+ As it is, I own a passel of videogames for my PS2, and a handful for my XBOXEN, so I really don’t see the need of picking up a PS3 (too feckin’ expensive) or an XBOX 360 (not inexpensive enough) in the near-future. However, I might rescind that statement — at least as far as the XBOLLOX 360 — cos I’ve just seen trailers for Bioshock, and it is, in the parlance of our times, gripping my shit. An intelligent first-person shooter that manifests a sense of immediate terror in a retro-apocalyptic landscape, where you have the ability to set people on fire or launch insects out of your forearms through the use of hazardous on-the-fly drug enhancements?? Sign me up! My gods, have you seen the trailers? I swear, between Bioshock and Dynasty warriors: Gundam, that XSLAB 360’s lookin’ kinda good…
(aside to PB Shelley: do you have enough Plasmids?)

+ Thanks to Bandai Visual, the DVD imprint that’s known for their pricey-but-well-done releases, such as the very fab Gunbuster boxset, now I can look forward to buying a crystal-clear copy of one of my top three favourite anime films of all time: ‘Wings of Honneamise‘, which is due out in September. Only thing is, Bandai is forcing people to purchase the regular DVD with either an additional HD-DVD or Blu-ray disk along with it (or, if you’re an A/V elitist, forcing you to buy a mere bog-standard DVD with your HD-DVD or Blu-ray disk). I suppose not just including a book with the regular DVD — like what you’d done with the Patlabor films — wasn’t good enough, eh? Ah well, as long as I have my Honneamise, I’ll be happy

+ It’s a tiny house!

The micro compact home [m-ch] is a lightweight, modular and mobile minimal dwelling for one or two people. Its compact dimensions of 2.6m cube adapt it to a variety of sites and circumstances, and its functioning spaces of sleeping, working – dining, cooking, and hygiene make it suitable for everyday use.

Under normal circumstances, I’m not too keen on studio apartments, as usually they’re slightly larger than a shoebox, but I think the space-age austerity of the micro compact home would make it quite appealing. It’s a bit like a more permanent version of the Hotel Everland, now that I think about it… [m-ch] actually contains two levels, if you can believe that, and can accomodate about six or seven of your closest mates. At the very least, if you weren’t close before, you will be in short order

+ Finally, for years, I’ve wondered, and still wonder, why as super-hygenic as the American populace claims to be, the whole concept of the bidet confuses and frightens most people. It’s a good idea. I suppose you could chalk it up to the expenditure of having to make bathrooms slightly larger to accomodate both a toilet and a bidet, but concessions could be made. Other countries don’t have to worry about that shit (pun), as Japanese bog manufacturer TOTO has been exporting fancy high-tech bogs for years; the Washlet is a product that’s like a bidet, yet fits over your existing toilet like a big seat. Lovely! I don’t mind saying: I would love to own one of those bad boys

ta very much to Dave Z and Derek for some of the links

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Honestly, it’s a thematic coincidence

typed for your pleasure on 17 March 2007, at 5.47 pm

Sdtrk: ‘The owl service’ by Pram

This instalment has a theme! See if you can spot it.

+ Japanese company Marutake Sangyo Co., Ltd. makes and sells authentic-style samurai armour. Nice! I suppose owning one of these would be a more extreme/obscure version of being some RenFester or some LARPer, but damnit, I would like to be a samurai for Xmas. Or for Arbor Day, either one.


This armour’s nice! Yeah, I’ll have this one

They’re individually handcrafted, and as such, are extremely well-assembled. Which naturally means they’re, err, a bit pricey.

[05.25.35 PM] Zip Gun: Sure, I’ll sign up for some samurai armor; what’s $21000 anyway? I’d just spend it on CDs.

Kinda makes me want to play some more Samurai warriors 2 again, as that’s been my videogame heroin for the past couple of weeks. Imagine that. *goes off to play some more Samurai warriors 2 again*

*much later*
+ Speaking of Samurai warriors 2, Musou Orochi looks promising. Derek tipped me off to this a while ago; he’s thinking it’ll probably be Koei’s last musou-themed game for the PS2, and it looks rather mental. Combining apparently all the playable characters from all the Dynasty warriors and Samurai warriors series (serieses?), Musou Orochi will have over seventy characters, unless of course, they add more. Anything’s possible!
Essentially the theme is that all of the characters from the Dynasty warriors series, which takes place during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China, and all the characters from the Samurai warriors games, which occur during the Sengoku/Warring states period of medieval Japan, are collectively teleported to another dimension by the demon Orochi (I’m wondering if it’s the same Orochi of Japanese myth — I certainly wouldn’t put it past mythology-and-history-driven Koei). Apart from that, I know nothing of the game, apart from the fact that there will undoubtedly be non-stop fighting of an immense magnitude. Which is what one would expect of a game in the Samurai/Dynasty warriors line! No news yet if it’s going to be exported to the States, but since Koei’s released every other game over here, I don’t see why not

+ Speaking of Koei’s Musou series, the first game they’re releasing for the PS3 that almost has me wanting to purchase one of those overpriced consoles. They’ve teamed up with Bandai to create Gundam Musou. That’s right, Mobile suit Gundam scientifically crossbred with Dynasty warriors. It sounds like a fever dream, but it’s entirely true! When I’d first seen mention of this on 4chan‘s /m/echa board, I believed it to be some elaborate hoax involving Photoshop. But apparently it’s due out in Japan this month, and hundreds of mecha fans will soon be demolishing thousands of enemy mobile suits, in grand Dynasty warriors button-mashing style. Most impressive.
Looks like it’s got the Zeta Gundam, the Qubeley, Turn A Gundam and the non-canonical-but-very-ace Musha Gundam, among others. Roger that, and drooling now. Damnit Sony, drop the price on your PS3, so I can justify the purchase!

+ Speaking of robot samurai, the Japanese group tmsuk (quite a name, by the way) has developed Kiyomori, the world’s first mechanised samurai, as their flagship robot. Not as intriguing as a certain cluster of Synthetik women, but still rather ace. Besides, his walking technology could be used as a test bed for Androids and Gynoids; his gait, although slow, is more like an Organik’s, as he is able to stretch and bend his knees. You can check out some footage of him ambling about on YooChoob here.
Lovely design! The glowering red eyes are a nice touch! And as it turns out, they kitted out Kiyomori in armour made by Marutake Sangyo. Which would be an eerie coincidence, if I hadn’t discovered Marutake Sangyo through the Kiyomori site

+ And nothing at all to do with samurai — sorry — high-end DVD distributors Criterion have finally announced that in June, they’ll be releasing one of my top ten favourite films of all time, ‘if….‘, starring the godlike Malcolm McDowell. FUCK YES.


‘The whole world will end very soon…
black brittle bodies, peeling into ash’

That same month, they’ll also be releasing ‘La jetée‘ and ‘WR: Mysteries of the organism‘, which are two films I’ve been wanting to see for years, but zOMG ‘IF….’ SET CREDIT CARD TO PRE-ORDER

Random similar posts, for more timewasting:

Fusing Materialism with Esoterica on September 4th, 2007

A sorry excuse for a post, or, LOOK OUT RUNAWAY LINK TRAIN on October 22nd, 2004


‘My, Earth really is full of things’

typed for your pleasure on 8 November 2006, at 12.52 am

Sdtrk: ‘The maze’ by Zeigenbock Kopf

Yes, despite all evidence to the contrary, I actually do have interests in subjects that aren’t Gynoids or RealDolls. ‘The devil you say!’ you say. ‘I say!’ say I.

+ Two of my favourite architectural ‘modes’ are Space-age (duh), and Urban decay. Combine the two, and you get the abandoned and possibly haunted San Zhi resort area in Taiwan!


Behold: the ruined corpses of good architecture

+ file under ‘Games That Are Too Spectacular To Be Released Domestically’: Derek sent me a link a couple of weeks ago to Kamiwaza, a game for the PS2. Made by Acquire, the wonderful humans who developed the ‘Way of the Samurai’ series (which I still play now and again), Kamiwaza has you controlling a thief in Edo-period Japan, sneaking round, not being seen, and emptying houses of their precious bootay. He’s got the traditional green-with-white-vines bag that thieves used to use back then — must’ve been union rules — but apparently it’s near-bottomless. If you scope the videos on the site, you’ll see he’s nicking things that are like three times the bag’s size. It looks fun and entirely engaging, and that’s why it’ll never reach the States. But then, I’d said that about Zettai zetsumei toshi, Katamari damacy, and Okami, so…

+ If Shi-chan bowled more often, this would be a fab gift for her, methinks: a Brunswick-made Hello Kitty bowling ball. It’d go well (?) with her Hello Kitty vibrator. That vibe makes a great shoulder massager, by the way, much how I suspect the bowling ball wouldn’t

+ Laibach have a new release out, entitled ‘Volk‘? The devil you say! As long as it sounds nothing like ‘Jesus Christ Superstars’, I’ll be pleased, cos that album sucked so very, very much.
Apparently Laibach, much like 98% of the world’s population, have a MySpace. Guh. Have I told you how much I despise MySpace? Dodgy layouts / unnecessary .mp3 ambushes / scene & emo kids / shitting all over proper English — this would be the death-rattle of civilised society as we know it. Unless the MySpace blog I’m viewing is by or sponsored by the actual band — for regrettably, quite a few of my favourite artists and people have ’em — I immediately disregard whatever’s written on it. It’s much like if the original creators of the Magna Carta were to have written it up in crayon on some sheets of wrinkled control paper; there’s no way you could take it something like that seriously. Heh. MYSPACE: Making Livejournal Look Stylish and Credible.
Sorry, was I ranting? Mea culpa! Anyway, new Laibach Cd out now

+ I’m catching up with a few television shows, thanks to INTERNET PIRATES, such as Life on Mars, recommended by my friend Marika — a police officer from our time gets struck by a car, and wakes up in 1973. Has he travelled back in time? Is he in a coma? Who knows??!?; Dexter, a serial killer working for the Miami Police is attempting to catch another sociopath who murders and dissects his victims with (literally) surgical precision; and Torchwood, the Doctor Who spinoff — Buffy + X-files + a dash of contemporary Doctor Who + swearin’ and snoggin’ + Capt. Jack Harkness = Torchwood. It’s… okay. It’s certainly no Doctor Who, I can tell ya that. Proudly filmed in Cardiff, a fact that they’re not willing to let anyone forget…
Honestly, I need to forgo watching any further episodes of all of those shows until I’m done watching all 50 episodes of Turn A Gundam and Kamen rider 555, as those have been sitting idly by

+ Last Saturday eve, my mate Jeff showed me two of his latest DVD acquisitions: Classic Media’s ace reissues of (most of) the Showa-era Godzilla films. He’s grabbed ‘Mothra vs Godzilla’, and ‘Godzilla raids again’, and if you purchase them from the site, they’re a snip at $15 apiece. Each DVD contains the original subtitled film, as well as the domestic release, and a passel of extras. Plus, the packaging alone is pretty impressive.
Apparently, they’ll also be releasing ‘Ghidorah the Three-headed Monster’, ‘Monster Zero’, and ‘Terror of Mechagodzilla’. *throws devil horns*

+ Despite the unavoidable fact that Lady Sovereign is filthy Townie scum, I found myself laughing like a drain at her ‘Love me or hate me‘ video, as any video featuring a ghost hamster is A-OK in my book. Hell, anything featuring a ghost hamster is something to be treasured

+ Finally, finally, finally. One of the finest anime serials ever made is getting a worthwhile release on DVD!


INAZUMA KIIIIIIICK

GAINAX’s ‘Aim for the Top! Gunbuster‘, released through Bandai’s Honneamise label, will be out domestically in February. That package alone is raw sex appeal.
Now all Honneamise (the distributor) has to do to win my total approval is re-release one of the finest anime feature films ever made, ‘Wings of Honneamise‘, and give it the same treatment. We await with bated breath

+ And it appears Blogger has been rolling out a new iteration of their bloggin’ software; this version (Blogger Beta) apparently — finally — has categories.

Huh.

*now shaking with rage*

ta very much to Derek & Jeff for some of the links

Random similar posts, for more timewasting:

Looks like links on March 1st, 2008

file under 'Linkdump (Media)' on April 28th, 2005


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