I only have five episodes left for Zeta Gundam. Damn, that show’s messed up. Now, I already knew that one of the distinguishing features of that show is that a lot of characters die, but I had no idea that a certain character (who shall remain nameless) buys it during a particular episode. I was actually shocked, cos I’d read the episode synopses years ago, back when anime was first getting a foothold on domestic shores, and I’d either completely forgotten that _____ died, or just overlooked it entirely. Due to my ‘reading ahead’ I have a general idea of what happens at the end, but I don’t know the particulars.. Odhinn bless you, Tomino, for being clinically depressed when directing that show. Wow.

Also, Shi-chan & I did our first photo shoot since, like, February of 2004! We’re pretty satisfied with the results.

All that crap of me going on about ‘logistics’ worked out rather well! The backdrop camouflages the more repellent parts of the room decor, and between the ceiling light and the two ‘klieg’ lights (actually two clamp-on shop lamps), there’s more than enough light. We prefer natural light, but that’s just gonna have to wait until we move. In the meantime, not bad!
Don’t hold me to it, but I’m hoping to have them posted to ‘Kitten with a Whip!’ in the next week or so. I’ve got to sort thru 130 photos, which means I have to select thirty. Hrrm. But it was definitely fun getting back into the photo-taking vibe. Back in the saddle! Or something?

A couple of days ago, I was wasting time on das InfoBahn doing vanity searches for both my name & Sidore’s name, and one of the Sidore-related links was a site called mangoat.net, that had a mini-review of ‘Kitten with a Whip!’, under the title ‘real doll creepyness (sic)’. Here’s the article in its entirety:

01/28/2004 Entry: “real doll creepyness”

Great mother of Snuh?, I think I finally found the worst site on the internet.

I.. I just don’t know what to say. Be careful clicking that at work.

/shudder

Sure, sometimes bad press is better than no press at all — one of the two comments for his post read ‘Woah…she’s hot!’ — but I had to say something. Hence, fueled by a mix of ire & curiosity, I wrote goatman back..

To: Mike Kremkau (mangoat@gmail.com)
Subj: RE.your 28 Jan entry “real doll creepyness”

Hi there, Mangoat!

Davecat here, maintainer of the website ‘Kitten with a Whip!’, and boyfriend to Sidore Kuroneko, the Goth RealDoll. I was doing an MSN Search on ‘KWAW!’ and stumbled across your witty posting. Suffice to say, being called the ‘worst site on the internet’ is a bold statement. What about it did you find bad? Was it the layout? Or was it the content? You don’t really go into specifics, so I’m at a loss, here. Care to explain? We’d enjoy hearing from you..

Cheers,
Davecat

About two days later, the erudite philosopher goatfucker sent his riposte:

To: lamia_doll [at] hotmail [dot] com
Subj: Re: RE.your 28 Jan entry “real doll creepyness”

Dude, you have a site dedicated to the life and personality of a fuckable latex sculpture of a woman. Plus, you really need to drop the tables, or at least make the borders invisible. Also, choose a better font and text color because my wife can’t read the site at all.

So I fired back with this missive that same evening:

To: mangoat@gmail.com
Subj: I guess we can’t all be as clever as Mangoat

Okay, so let me guess:
1) You don’t like fiction, or the development of fictional characters.
2) You can’t appreciate beauty, whether it’s artificial or not.
3) Sex without emotional baggage doesn’t really appeal to you.
4) The simple concept of a person spending their time to create a website around a subject that they enjoy, one which does no harm to anyone, makes you cringe.

As for your table complaints; no, I won’t be dropping those, unless you can come up with a better solution for me. And I happen to like dark colours such as black, dark blue & purple, so the colours are pretty much staying. If they’re too dark for you, I would suggest turning the brightness up on your monitor. Or just do what I do on sites that I think are too dark – highlight the text.
As far as the font for ‘KWAW!’, it should be Arial; if you’re not seeing it in that, check your browser settings. I would’ve used Futura T Light, but not everyone has that installed, and I refuse to use serif-based fonts. In short, if you don’t like ‘Kitten with a Whip!’, don’t visit it. I’m sure you can find other sites to mock.

Shi-chan & I say thanx for your input! We will give your comments the attention that they deserve.

Cheers,
D. & S.

And so far, I’ve not heard anything else from Goatfucker Towers. A tragedy. 😐

Ultimately, I could not physically care less if a person thinks Dolls are creepy, or if they think I’m a freak for owning one. It’s not as if I’m going to leap out of my seat and sell Shi-chan right there and then, just cos I don’t fit into some fuckwit’s concept of ‘normalcy’. Personally, I tend to think a lot of anti-Doll comments (made by males, anyway) are done so out of jealousy. And normally, I’m not a vengeful person — I may make the odd threat occasionally, but very rarely do I follow thru with them. Once in a while though, it’s extraordinarily satisfying to hit back, especially if you know you’re in the right

Well, yes! Kinda. I’m currently grilling Uli & Jeff of Delphi creations as to their Superdoll product, as I’m rather intrigued, and so far, I like what I hear.. Still waiting for part three of my interview with the illustrious Meghan Laslocky. And.. that’s about it, really.

Shi-chan is doing quite well for herself; these days, she spends like 99.9% of her time in bed. Due to our living situation, she’s currently in semi-retirement from being the RealGoth pin-up model that she usually is — I’m trying to come up with a logistical way to take photos in our bedroom, but the surroundings are too bleh for my tastes, but I’m giving it some thought. We’re stuck here for at least three years until we move *grits teeth* but, despite the bedroom decor, I’d like to get some shoots in. I might take the approach of what some of the Japanese doll owners do, or those with similarly limited space, and just restrict the photographs to a ‘staging area’, much in the same way that t-dash-san & Yuka-chan, or atsushi-san & MaRi-chan, work. It’s really about doing a lot with a little, as it were. Besides, people aren’t looking at my pics to check out the background — or so I would hope…

Finally, back in September, Elisabeth, our friend & interviewer from France, met up with Valérie Guignabodet, the director of ‘Monique‘, the satirically romantic RealDoll comedy. (Yes; niche market, I know, but consider what site you’re reading.) A couple of weeks beforehand, Eli told me she would be meeting up with Mme. Guignabodet, so I mailed her the sleeve insert of my DVD copy of ‘Monique’ to pass along to be autographed. And she did.

Needless to say, we’re quite proud!

O, and I still have yet to watch my copy of ‘Love object‘.
Hmm.. am I really in such a hurry to view that one? (cue image of a needlessly jealous Shi-chan coming at me with a Liston knife)

Well, no ‘Zatoichi’ last night, as it premieres next Friday. *slaps heel ov hand to forehead*

Couple ov updates on the Doll front; Today was my second interview via phone with Meg Laslocky, a New York-based writer who’s doing an article about Dolls & their owners. She was pointed in my direction by professional photographer Elena Dorfman, who took a handful ov really ace photos ov myself & Shi-chan back in 2001 as part ov her series on the same subject, entitled ‘Still Lovers’. With any luck, the article might make it to a nationwide magazine; she’s aiming for Harper’s Bazaar, amongst others. So far, the interviews are going quite well — hopefully she’s finding it as informative as I’m finding it entertaining..

Plus, I received an Email over the week-end from Elisabeth Alexandre, the woman who conducted television interviews with me and a couple ov other iDollators in 2001. 2001 was a busy year! She says that, after a little over two years, she & Elena have finally found a publisher, and a Parisian group will be releasing a ‘Still Lovers’ book next Spring. Fecking ace. 🙂 Only thing is, I don’t know if it’ll be in French, English, or both.. I’ve gotta Email her back.. more details as I hear about them, ov course..

Spoke with my best friend Sean today, for the first time in several years. We were bringing each other up to speed on our lives for close to two hours.. One ov the nicer aspects ov the conversation is that he & his wife apparently live a couple ov blocks from where I work, so, instead ov just talking about hooking up, like we’ve been doing the last couple ov times we spoke, we can actually do it.
As Sean & I were the only children in our respective families, we were like the closest thing we’ve had to brothers — we’ve literally known each other since we were about five or so years old, as we grew up in the same apartment building — and because ov Random Life Bullshit, we’ve not had the opportunity to get together in too long ov a while, which sucked, because we were practically joined at the hip for years. From countless hours hanging out at the RenCen and Trapper’s Alley, to numerous trips to Toronto; from repeatedly watching our 2nd-gen copies ov ‘Wings of Honneamise’, to seeing My bloody valentine perform at St.Andrew’s; from making an unholy din with our own band Dole age, to running riot in Metro Airport with Monti, Tammy & a videocamera. I could go on, but I won’t. It’ll be ace meeting him again. 🙂
BTW, Monti, he says ‘hi’..

And finally, I had my hair straightened again. That burning means it’s working! :-\

So I got to thinking: if I had more money than, well, sense, I’d commission my favourite living artists to do illustrations ov Sidore-chan. Then I’d compile them into a nice coffee table book, and sell copies on ‘Kitten with a Whip!‘, so I could attempt to recoup the costs ov requesting the works to begin with. Well, maybe a third ov the commission expenditure, at any rate. Here’s my dream team (sorry I couldn’t find links for some ov them):

JAPAN:
+ Mamoru Nagano
+ Kazuma Kaneko
+ Masamune Shirow
+ Hajime Sorayama
+ Yui Toshiki
+ Yasushi Nirasawa
+ D.K
+ Satoshi Urushihara
+ Kenichi Sonoda
+ Yasuomi Umetsu (Character designer & director; Mezzo forte, Mezzo the TV Series, Kite)
+ Suehiro Maruo
+ Masahiko Nakahira (Manga-ka; Hakaima Sadamitsu)
+ Mitsukazu Mihara

EUROPE:
+ H.R Giger
+ Trevor Brown
+ Cabine
+ Thomas Barwick
+ John Allison
+ Superdead
+ Jamie Hewlett
+ Marguerite Sauvage

UNITED STATES:
+ Evan Dorkin
+ Yumiko Kayukawa
+ Mike Allred
+ Dame Darcy
+ Adam Warren
+ Chynna Clugston-Major (Artist & author; Blue Monday, Scooter girl)
+ Adam Cruz/House Industries
+ the guy who draws Archie comics

I suspect the ones by H.R Giger and Suehiro Maruo would probably be the freakiest — quite possibly the only time you’ll see a Synthetik pin-up model rendered as Good Ol’ Fashioned Nightmare Fuel. But in a good way