Sdtrk: ‘Il doit faire beau La-bas’ by Noëlle Cordier

Wasting time, err, I mean, doing research on the InfoBahn yet again, I revisited the site for maniacs for the first time in quite a while. No no, it’s not an admission of my insanity — heh — maniacs is a Japanese model-making company whose biggest claim to fame is the ‘Fever Doll’ series of Mannequins. I’d had it bookmarked for a while, then deleted it cos I’m not as passionate about Mannequins as I used to be. But noting the maniacs site again recently, I see that they have a new limited edition item that’s relevant to my interests: Eternal Angel. A Doll masquerading as a Gynoid? How is that even possible??

She has a rather ‘centrefold from OMNI’ look about her

She doesn’t appear to be poseable at all, but no doubt she’d be one hell of a conversation piece. Plus, dig that transparent PVC wrap round her — it took me a couple of minutes to realise that’s a dress! Very nice..
One would suppose she’s the upgraded sister of Android Angel, also made by maniacs *snicker*, which made her debut in back in 2004. Whereas Android Angel is a heart-stopping ¥1,200,000 ($10,136 USD), the site doesn’t even list a price for Eternal Angel. And you know what they say about prices — if you have to ask, you’d best get a firm grip on something sturdy, and be prepared to bend over.

Both lasses remind me of P.A.S.S.-chan, from the never-seen-Stateside XBOX game, ‘N.U.D.E@‘, what with all the transparent bits and the blue highlights and etc. Although I’m sure the maniacs sculptors didn’t have her in mind in the slightest. They’re completely different, you see! Good Job maniacs, and Well Done

Sdtrk: ‘Top of the Pops’ by the Rezillos

Which human is having more Fun?

Session Start (kuroneko_23:james1online): Sat Mar 18 13:20:58 2006
[01.20.58 PM] james1online: hiya swety
[01.21.04 PM] james1online: hw re u doing today amjames
[01.21.10 PM] kuroneko_23: Who?
[01.21.35 PM] james1online: am james
[01.21.43 PM] james1online: hw re u doing today?/
[01.21.57 PM] kuroneko_23: That.. tells me nothing.
You do realise I’m a bloke, right?
[01.22.26 PM] james1online: i want to meet u
[01.22.42 PM] james1online: what re u talking am about
[01.22.58 PM] kuroneko_23: Do you speak English at all? Or understand it?
[01.23.05 PM] james1online: james
[01.23.25 PM] james1online: yes
[01.23.30 PM] james1online: what ur name Ms
[01.23.33 PM] kuroneko_23: ‘James’ is no language that I’ve heard of.
[01.23.40 PM] james1online: am james
[01.23.43 PM] kuroneko_23: I AM A MAN, YOU DUMB TWAT.
[01.23.52 PM] james1online: ok
[01.24.09 PM] james1online: where re u right now
[01.24.17 PM] james1online: can i see u
[01.24.24 PM] *** james1online has added you to their contact list. You may choose to accept or deny this action. You may also add this user to your contact list or Ignore this user.
[01.24.55 PM] james1online: re u ther
[01.24.58 PM] *** You have denied access to james1online.
[01.25.09 PM] kuroneko_23: Where are you from, stupid?
[01.25.46 PM] james1online: usa
(Plot point)
[01.25.53 PM] james1online: and u
[01.26.21 PM] kuroneko_23: Are you six years old? Or mentally retarded?
Because you type like a mentally retarded six year old.
[01.26.35 PM] kuroneko_23: Were you dropped on your head as a child?
[01.26.49 PM] kuroneko_23: Do you even understand what I’m typing?
[01.27.05 PM] james1online: yes
[01.27.09 PM] james1online: tell me again
[01.27.16 PM] james1online: am a guy
[01.27.31 PM] kuroneko_23: ‘am a guy’
Question, or statement?
[01.27.42 PM] james1online: i do will u say
[01.27.50 PM] kuroneko_23: What??
[01.27.52 PM] james1online: ok
[01.27.57 PM] james1online: but u ve lady pix
(This threw me for a bit, until I realised that he was going off my IM pic — I swap out several pics of various RealDolls for my avatar. Matt McMullen, 1 – james1online, 0)
[01.28.08 PM] kuroneko_23: That means absolutely nothing.
[01.28.37 PM] james1online: ok
[01.28.42 PM] james1online: so am a gay too
[01.28.42 PM] james1online: and u
[01.28.59 PM] james1online: i use to act like the woman
[01.29.02 PM] kuroneko_23: ‘Guy’ or ‘Gay’?
I am a guy, and I am not gay.
[01.29.10 PM] kuroneko_23: That’s.. great.
[01.29.22 PM] james1online: ok
[01.29.29 PM] james1online: can we be friend
[01.29.29 PM] james1online: where re u
[01.29.36 PM] james1online: right now
[01.30.33 PM] kuroneko_23: I am at home.
And you don’t know anything about me, and you want to be my friend? Are you that desperate and/or starved for attention that you’ll attempt to befriend anyone at random on the Internet, despite the fact that every other sentence you get from them is insulting?
[01.30.37 PM] kuroneko_23: You dumb cunt?
[01.31.44 PM] james1online: really
[01.32.00 PM] kuroneko_23: YA RLY
[01.32.09 PM] james1online: can i see u on cam
[01.32.18 PM] kuroneko_23: I don’t have a cam.
[01.32.28 PM] james1online: ok
[01.32.39 PM] james1online: country
[01.32.50 PM] kuroneko_23: Look, you churl. This is my profile.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/kuroneko_23
[01.33.12 PM] james1online: ok
[01.34.06 PM] kuroneko_23: That’s why you have to do your homework before engaging people at random in conversation, you sad stupid bastard.
[01.34.44 PM] james1online: what do u for live
[01.35.01 PM] kuroneko_23: HEY, JAMES. DO ME A FAVOUR?
[01.35.25 PM] kuroneko_23: TYPE IN PROPER GODDAMN ENGLISH.
[01.35.52 PM] james1online: ok
(Get ready, as james, upon learning that I’m not actually a lass, takes a different approach. Let’s watch)
[01.35.56 PM] james1online: i need ur favour
[01.36.14 PM] james1online: can u cash me a check
[01.36.36 PM] kuroneko_23: O yeah, let me do that. I’d be HAPPY to cash your fucking cheque.
[01.36.57 PM] kuroneko_23: You’re retarded, aren’t you? Is that what your problem is?
[01.36.59 PM] james1online: ok
[01.37.23 PM] james1online: do u ve printer
[01.37.39 PM] kuroneko_23: Can you count past five, james? Is that why you want me to cash your cheque, cos it’s $6?
[01.37.54 PM] james1online: i ve to go buy papper check
[01.38.13 PM] james1online: the check cos 3700
[01.38.18 PM] kuroneko_23: The word is spelt ‘paper’, you fucking inbred.
[01.38.19 PM] james1online: $
[01.38.43 PM] james1online: ok
[01.38.43 PM] james1online: can u get it now
[01.38.58 PM] james1online: so that i can give the check in ur mail box
[01.39.12 PM] kuroneko_23: Yeah! Through the Magick of the Internet, I’ll get it! In fact, I have it RIGHT NOW.
[01.39.19 PM] james1online: so that u can print it out and go cashit
[01.39.35 PM] james1online: ok
[01.39.51 PM] james1online: \can i ve ur names ,address ,city,state,zipcode ,tell
[01.40.07 PM] james1online: mail to my box james1online@yahoo.com
(Feel free to make use of this. You know you want to)
[01.40.12 PM] james1online: now
[01.40.15 PM] kuroneko_23: Sure! But first, let me have yours. Just type it here!
[01.40.55 PM] kuroneko_23: james?
[01.41.04 PM] kuroneko_23: Send me your address.
[01.41.08 PM] kuroneko_23: Send it to me now.
[01.41.12 PM] kuroneko_23: Now, james.
[01.41.23 PM] kuroneko_23: Don’t be a cakefucker, and do what I say, james.
[01.41.33 PM] kuroneko_23: Send me your info now.
[01.41.34 PM] james1online: ok
[01.41.36 PM] kuroneko_23: Now.
[01.41.44 PM] kuroneko_23: Right now.
[01.41.49 PM] james1online: give it to me
[01.42.02 PM] kuroneko_23: You first james, or I’m ending this conversation.
[01.42.17 PM] kuroneko_23: You want me to cash that cheque for you, james?
[01.42.18 PM] james1online: u see
[01.42.34 PM] kuroneko_23: Yes or no, james? Do you want me to cash that cheque?
[01.42.49 PM] james1online: right now am in africa and i need ur help
(Hey! Didn’t you just say you were in the States? YOU SIR, ARE AN INTERNET LIAR)
[01.42.49 PM] james1online: yes
[01.43.03 PM] kuroneko_23: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
[01.43.09 PM] kuroneko_23: You’re one of THEM.
[01.43.18 PM] kuroneko_23: Robert Mugabe?
(At this point, I kenned that this was the IM version of the old-as-the-Internet-itself fraud of ‘some bloke in Africa wants you to help him out by sending him some money, and in return, he’ll send you $3 billion/access to oil fields/untold riches/etc.‘ I couldn’t remember the name that a lot of the scammers use, but ‘Robert Mugabe’ popped into my head. Plus, since Trillian has insta-access to Wikipedia, as soon as I typed that name, it showed me an entry for Mr Mugabe, who is, as far as I know, not a scammer)
[01.43.39 PM] james1online: and i willl give to some out the it 300
[01.43.39 PM] james1online: no]
[01.43.44 PM] james1online: am james walker
(James Walker was apparently someone involved with the government of an African nation. The Wiki entry I got from Trillian was different than the one you get when you go directly to their site)
[01.43.55 PM] kuroneko_23: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
[01.44.00 PM] kuroneko_23: Great!
[01.44.06 PM] james1online: *DING*
[01.44.07 PM] kuroneko_23: Can you do me a favour, james?
[01.44.19 PM] kuroneko_23: Just one favour?
[01.44.20 PM] james1online: yes
[01.44.35 PM] james1online: yes
[01.44.37 PM] kuroneko_23: GO CHOKE ON A COCK, CRAWL INTO A DITCH AND DIE, YOU WASTE OF FLESH.
[01.44.39 PM] *** james1online has been ignored.

Sdtrk: ‘Ich war ein Kind’ by France Gall

Sent off my questionnaire answers on Sunday to Anu, the writer of the soon-to-be-published latest article about RealDolls and their owners, for Finland’s Image magazine. It took me about a week to properly answer fourteen questions, cos I’m especially thorough with a subject such as this, so there’s less chance of me being misunderstood. He wrote back, ‘I was impressed by the effort you’d put into them for our mag across the globe. Unfortunately I was limited by space in using them, but I did leave some other stuff out of the final text to be able to fit more of your thoughts into it.’ Translation: egad, you’re blabby. Better more than less, as far as that goes..

Speaking of interviews, here’s a rather ace interview of sorts with Morrissey, conducted by Douglas Coupland. His solo material still has yet to affect me as much as his work with Johnny, Andy and Mike, to whom I regard their releases as gospel. But Morrissey — quite literally, the Man, the Myth, the Legend — will always be a person I greatly admire.

… He doesn’t like celebrity culture or pop culture – disdains it really – and yet he obsesses on obscure pop stars from other eras such as Sacha Distel (French; 1960s) and seems to perceive no similarity between worshipping what’s happening now versus what was once worshipped in other times.

Well shit, that sounds awfully familiar, wouldn’t you say?

Sdtrk: ‘Scheisse’ by the Seconds

We here at ‘Shouting etc etc’ — and when I say ‘we’, I mean, myself and Sidore-chan, and when I say ‘myself and Sidore-chan’, I mean ‘myself’, cos she won’t write for this bloody thing.
Where was I? O yeah. We here at ‘Shouting etc etc’ don’t really have any hard and fast rules for building selections for the critically-acclaimed ‘This was the Future’ series — basically, it should be from the mid-to-late Fiftes up to the mid-Seventies, or it should look like it’s from that time period, and it has to be interesting. Having said that, I’m not a big fan of saucer-shaped structures. With the exceptions of the Chemosphere and the Futuro House (review pending), I just don’t really like them, as I think they’re kinda forced and cliched. ‘IN TEH FUTURE, OUR HOMES WILL BE SHAPED IN THE STYLE OF THE SAUCERS THAT WE WILL USE TO TRAVEL TO THE STAAAAARRS!!1!’ I always thought using that particular shape for a building was a little dumb. Perhaps it’s the lack of corners that bothers me, I dunno. But recently I happened upon a structure I’d never heard of before: the Evoluon in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

To celebrate the 75th birthday of the Philips company in Eindhoven in 1966, a special exhibit on science and technology was opened in the Evoluon, a futuristic building designed by L. Ch. Kalff. [..] The exhibition was designed by the British designer James Gardner. It was not a display of Philips products, but a museum with a message. Shown was how mechanisation and automating had increased production and made life more comfortable. You could see how modern society had its problems, from environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources to over population, but also how technology could offer solutions to these problems. Lots of science and its technical application could be seen.

Yes yes, it’s an enormous saucer. But the interior.. my christ, the interior. That was the best thing about it! If you got Broadcast and Ghost box round to your office and hired them as interior designers, you’d end up with something a lot like the Evoluon. It was a science museum constructed in the Sixties, so naturally you had to have a lot of concrete hexagons, and chrome spheres, and perspex boxes, and metal ‘sound sculptures’ and things of that nature — it’s a rule. See if I’m wrong.

The museum also featured its own amateur radio station, a robot called the ‘Senster’ which reacted to sounds, an oversized Nixie clock that was used to display the number of visitors every day, and if you couldn’t get a guide to assist you, you merely requested a ‘Gidofoon’, which was a cassette deck that played a tape which explained each exhibit. Brilliant.

The exhibition was closed in 1989 due to the declining amount of visitors; however, the Evoluon still stands today, as it has been repurposed as a business-oriented conference centre. Good to see that the building’s still around, but without the Philips exhibit, it’s definitely not the same..

Finally, you have to view the videos, also hosted on Kees’ Evoluon Site (that’s the good one, not the corporate one). Even the music’s perfect!
So I guess the saucer-shape isn’t too inappropriate, as it’s transported me back to the Evoluon’s heyday. Rather clever, indeed

Sdtrk: ‘Alison’ by Slowdive

Achtung! New video posted to Shi-chan’s Dailymotion page:

Actroid Repliee Q1-type 002

You’d think the fact that I’ve displayed it here kinda makes that link redundant, but I really wanted to start bumping the previous post from the topmost spot. I’d write up another instalment of ‘This was the Future’, but that’d take at least 90 min of research, and it’s already past my bedtime. Maybe later, if you’re good

Sdtrk: ‘Only to other people’ by The Cookies

Remember that post I’d written concerning the brilliant ‘Caring for Your Introvert’ article by Jonathan Rauch? Well, there’s a follow-up interview with him here.

Do you ever wish you were an extrovert?

Not really. That may be because my “faking it” skills are pretty good. But I do think a lot of us are tired of being told that there’s something wrong with us—of this lazy assumption that if you’re not an extrovert, there’s something wrong with you. I think my article may speak to people in part because of its defiant message. It says, “No, I don’t wish to be an extrovert. Not everyone has to be one. And why don’t you people get it?”

Again, required reading

Sdtrk: ‘Everybody in the Discotheque (I hate) (We Love Motor Mark mix)’ by Stereo total

Funny you should axe that question! atsushi-san and his sexpot girlfriend MaRi-chan have kindly sent us these new pics for evaluation recently. These would be the new face for the Yu-ki model of A.I NEO Doll by 4woods.

4woods normally has a quite consistent batting average with their lasses, but wow, the new face is very, very impressive — the eye makeup is ace, and I am really digging her little pout. (And everything else, of course..)

Sure, Yu-ki may be more ganguro-esque than Shi-chan and I prefer our Synthetiks, but, as she can still be ordered with the ‘Natural’ skintone as well as ‘Asian color’, that’s quite alright. It’s not as if we’d say no to a ganguro Doll anyway, but I’d have to keep a close watch on my credit card..
Additional pics of the new face aren’t actually up yet on 4woods’ site, so I guess this post would be defined as a ‘scoop’, but an official announcement should be made soon, however. In the meantime, you could do what we’re doing, and stare longingly at the ones above! Ahh, so nice..

Also, I may have a line on some episodes of ‘My living Doll‘ on DVD. Not exactly a legitimate release, of course, but at this point, beggars can’t be choosers, as I’ve been frothing at the bit for years to see these. More details relatively sooooon