Sdtrk: ‘We don’t belong’ by Sylvan

No, the heat hasn’t killed me. But it’s sure as hell trying. It’s been in the lower 90s every day since I last posted! I can only say this: Autumn better arrive early, and last for a long time — like from early September to mid-November. Mother Nature, I’M CALLING YOU OUT!!

I’m disappointed. I was semi-awake for like nearly half an hour before I got out of bed today, and all during that time, I was attempting to remember the details of last night’s dream. But, as it turns out, that the last half of my dream consisted of me attempting to remember the details of the first half of my dream. GodDAMNIT!!@
So what I’m left with is: it was a sunny-yet-nice day, and I was in the parking lot of ILHS, which was the location of the best job I’ve ever had in real life. I was driving some sort of sports car — a Mazda Rx-8, I believe — and you know how you can remove the back seats in vans? Well, you could do that to all the seats in my car, and two of my coworkers were putting them back in for me. Whilst that was going down, I was standing a few feet away, speaking to my real-life supervisor Avinash about Synthetiks.
‘What can you tell me about CandyGirls? I have seen a couple of pictures of them on the Internet, and I thought getting one would be pretty neat, but what would you say about them?’ he asked. (Picture that being said with an Indian accent, by the way.)
‘Well, to be honest, they’re not really my area of expertise’, I replied. ‘I mean, they’re cute and all, but for some reason, I never got too into them. I could tell you about RealDolls, Rare-Borgs and Mechadolls all day, but I don’t know a whole lot about the CandyGirl line, sorry.’
I was about to suggest that he hop online and hit the Doll Forum, when Sandy, one of my coworkers, motioned for me to come over to my car. ‘You gotta clear some of these quarters off the floor before we can get these seats in,’ she said. I peered inside my car, and there was about $50 in quarters spread out all over the floor.
‘O!’ I exclaimed, a bit surprised. ‘Oops!’

Aaand that’s pretty much all I recall. What would a dream interpreter make of this, I wonder?
1) I miss my job at ILHS.
1) I’m a trusted Synthetiks expert.
1) My quarter storage skills are horribly inadequate.
…yeah, that sounds about right.
Back in the early-to-mid Nineties, I used to keep detailed dream journals, and I was pretty disciplined about it, too. My problem now is that I do my best to recall what occurred in my dream; however, my desire to stay in bed and dream even more usually wins out. I’m too busy trying to spend my time in the proverbial dreamland, that by the time I legitimately wake up, I have around ten minutes or less before I forget the intricacies and plot points of what I was dreaming.

I’ve got to get ready for my final session of Transcription technology, but I’ll return with a summary of the fine Sunday evening I had with a couple of mates. In the meantime, here’s a link to a video clip from 2003 of Actroid-chan, before she made her official NEDO Expo debut (click on where it says ‘MOVIE’, obviously). Automatically cute!

Sdtrk: ‘Changer’ by Stereolab

Another new version of Actroid-chan? Yes? Perhaps?? Probably not, but this version, which they’re referring to as ‘Actroid Repliee’ (which was her development name), is being groomed for a possible career in broadcasting.

Robots in Step

And now the news, with “Actroid Repliee.” Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro looks after this newscaster robot, which relies on “air servo actuators” to move its arms, head and torso smoothly.

A Gynoid newscaster? That’s an idea so revolutionary, that it revolves.
Little bit of trivia for you: t-dash-san, in that recent Email I’d mentioned, says that ‘Unison‘s President was a employee of KOKORO company which developed Actroid’. Another piece of the Synthetik puzzle falls into place..
More details will be posted here as soon as I hear of them, of course

Sdtrk: ‘Alsh’ by The focus group

Articles of negligible importance:

+ Take the ‘Mod or Fraud’ quiz! TAKE IT!!
I scored 12 right out of 17, which is actually a bit embarrassing

+ New Death in June rarities compilation due out this month, entitled ‘Abandon tracks!’ Funny, you’d think this sort of news would be announced on their website, but it’s not been updated since October of last year. :-\

+ My new favourite music label: Ghost box. They are virtually dripping with that esoteric audio-scientific Sixties British vibe that Broadcast so fervently cultivated in me. ‘Ghost Box is an independent music label for artists that find inspiration in library music albums, folklore, vintage electronics, and the school music room’, they say. O yeah

+ The Main Art Theatre in Royal oak is supposed to be premiering ‘Howl’s moving castle’ this Friday, I believe? Gotta round up the lads for that

+ In playing Otogi for the Xbollox, I noticed something very intriguing. It has what might well be called the best soundtrack for any videogame ever made. It’s like a Heian-era Cocteau twins headed by Brad Laner, if you can dig that shizzle. Lots of taiko drums, lots of shamisen, lots of loops, lots of creepy voices from out of nowhere. Unfortunately, it seems that a soundtrack Cd only exists in my fevered imagination, cos I can’t find one for the life of me. Grrr. And now I gotta buy the sequel??

+ new Japanese mook (one of those Engrish portmanteaus of Magazine + bOOK), called ‘My Doll Friend’, that deals with, well, Artificial companions. Obviously I have to procure a copy by hook or by crook, although fellow Japanese iDollator t-dash (of BACKxFORE fame) mentioned in a recent Email that ‘[On the Japanese Doll BBSes], they say that MOOK doesn’t have the contents which correspond with its price.‘ I remain undeterred!

+ No new Actroid news! Just give it a month or so

+ Finally, it’s supposed to be in the upper eighties outside all this week. Christ in shitty knickers. :-\ One of the things I neglected to mention in my 85 things list is that my ideal temperature is between 60 – 65° Fahrenheit. I can’t stand being out in anything above 75° or so for long periods of time. Sweating is really undignified, unless you’re having it off with someone, and even then I suggest air conditioning

‘Shouting to hear the echoes’. You can’t say you didn’t learn something

Sdtrk: ‘Surfactant’ by Merzbow

So, what have you cats been up to? Huh, really? Me either.

Not a tremendous amount going on with me at the moment, although I did manage to score bargain-priced copies of Phantom crash and Blood will tell. To be honest, Phantom crash has been taking up a lot of my free time, but then, as I’d said, there simply isn’t a whole lot I’m up to right now.

Right, well, there is this (cross-posted from the thread I’d started on The Doll Forum):

Once again, the illustrious Ta-bo-san has yet another link in his diary worth investigating; this time it’s a film that looks pretty ace, called ‘Tamaño Natural’, aka ‘Grandeur nature’, aka ‘Grandezza naturale’, aka ‘Life Size’. Directed by Luis Garcia Berlanga, it looks to be like a 70s version of ‘Monique’. Apparently it was just released on DVD this year. ‘2005 March, DVD was obtained finally,’ Ta-bo-san sez through Babelfish. ‘It is Spanish reissue edition.’

Looks ace! But I would say that.. Actually, I already did say that.

O, and Abyss creations have posted new pics of their RealDolls on offer; that’s definitely noteworthy..

Finally, I have built a haiku out of raw matter. This is what happens when you step outside, by the way.

Oily black bird lands
Pecks at lawn without stopping
He has lots of time

Sdtrk: ‘All tomorrow’s parties’ by the Velvet underground and Nico

Just so you know, Sweetie’s site has been updated, for those of you who are into that sort of thing, of course..

And isn’t Devil may cry 3 out today? What the hell am I doing at home??
*runs out door*

For those of you into that sort of thing, ‘Kitten with a Whip!‘ will be updated tomorrow (25 Jan). Which, technically, will be in a couple of hours. Unless you’re in Japan; in which case we’re late. Gomen nasai!

We would’ve updated on the 23rd, as per ‘usual’, but being a mercenary and routing the ever-present threat of North Korea whilst making a bit of change on the side isn’t all rootbeer & skittles, y’know

This Friday past, I finally watched the last two episodes of Zeta Gundam. Damn, that show is fucking fantastic and grim, all at the same time. It’s beautiful.
Now, I’m the kind of bloke who has been happier with the anime industry standard that was more or less established during the mid-90s, where television series lasted for twenty-six episodes, as opposed to fifty-two, in order to drive the story along better due to there being less ‘filler’ episodes. (Also, I gather a largely significant reason for the shorter runs was due to a lot of studios not being able to afford long, drawn-out shows.) Zeta was made back in 1986, before the shorter series trend kicked in, and therefore runs 50 episodes. My worry with the series was that there were going to be a lot of throwaway epiodes that could’ve easily been omitted. I can think of maybe two off the top of my head; the rest of the series jets along at a rapid and suspenseful rate — ‘mostly killer, little filler’ if you will. And, as I’d known all these years between perusing the episode guides in Animag and actually watching the series a decade later, that yes, the ending of Zeta Gundam is even more messed up than I knew it to be. The Stark Fist of Tomino spares no-one.
Now, if you’re curious about seeing the series, but aren’t a rabid Zeta Gundam fanboy where you’d want to fork out $120+ for the box set, you can just wait a couple of years, as Bandai/Sunrise studios are doing what they did with the original Gundam series, and condensing 50 episodes into three feature-length films, with the first one premiering in March..

Also, Shi-chan & I cranked out another photo shoot! Can we be stopped??

Well, apparently yes, it turns out we can be stopped. We wrapped it up after only 80 photos, cos with both the room radiator & the lights cooking us like an EZ-Bake Oven, it was far too hot to continue. (Plus, if Shi-chan learned to move herself, that would help tremendously…) We might pick up again with the same clothes at a later date, but I still need to get the pics from the previous shoot ready for posting. Deadlines? What the hell are those??

Aaand here’s another stylishly retro-futuristic home for your approval: the famous Monsanto House of the Future, featured in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland from 1957 to 1967.

pic shamelessly stolen from Yesterland

Welcome to Monsanto Plastics Home of the Future! As you entered this experimental model home, perhaps you noticed that the house itself is constructed entirely of plastics. Despite the graceful lightweight appearance of the suspended wings of this house, each one is able to support more than 13 tons!

The floors on which you are walking, the gently sloping walls around you, and even the ceilings are made of plastics. Furnishings and equipment, as well as the house itself, are almost one-hundred percent manmade. Hardly a natural material appears in anything like its original state anywhere in the building.

*vibrates with joy*
The only thing I can think of off the top of my head to improve this modern masterpiece, would be wall-to-wall carpeting, as I don’t really like bare floors. And, err, cable jacks in every room. Those are just off the top of my head. But yes! The fecking Monsanto House! I really regret that I never got the chance to see it, and I think they should rebuild it elsewhere, for posterity’s sake. I mean, something like that is as significant to architectural history as something built in the 1700s, or anything involving a Corinthian column. And if you ask me, since 20th century Modern architecture & design combines both Form and Function, it’s much more impressive