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The Black Arts15 April Latest crap I likeSince it was Migraine Tuesday (as documented elsewhere on other blogs) I took the opportunity to view Kou Shibasaki's latest opus (roughly translated as ) Suspect X. A theatrical release of the same characters that appeared in her hit series Detective Galileo. I thought it was very, very well done. A very deifferent tone from the tv series - which itself was very well executed. I like these characters and hope the concept is revisited again. The main character is sort of a physicist Columbo for lack of a better description. The real star of the film is Tsutsumi Shinichi. His character arc is just heartbreaking. I also recently discovered Yui Aragaki who I think is simply great. She's cute, likable and is developing some real acting chops. Her singing however - at least the songs I heard - is terrible. Not a fan. I've seen 3 of her films so far: 1) Koizora- an off the wall weepy that was just too unrealistic and contrived to be effective as it could've been. The two leads were good with what they had to work with though. You could tell that Yui Aragaki (nee: Gakky) can definitely act. 2) Waruboro - She had what amounted to a bit part in this. I have no clue what this film was trying to say. Maybe that you have to stand up for your friends even when you know you're going to get the crud kicked out of yourself. Dunno. Didn't care for it. Gakky stood out in her limited screentime though. Bad subtitles may have contribted to my somewhat low opinion of this flick. Finally 3) Koi Suru Madori - I loved this movie. Its a fairy tale about a girl living alone for the first time and the people she encounters. The way everyone is ultimately intertwined streches believablity way beyond the breaking point but you go with it because the characters are likeable. Its a fable. Also of note, I watched to entire movie trying to figure out who the second lead female was. I couldn't guess that its the actress from Babel that got the Oscar nom. Cant recal her name or is she won but I read that this was her first part since (I think winning for ) Babel. She's very good in both. Completely opposite ends of the spectrum character wise. *** Galactica is done. Dont know how I feel about that. Seems like I cried for the whole last hour for no real reason I could think of. I think I'm just messed up emotionally lately. The ending felt fairly sastifying I guess. I felt empty for a couple days. I found Dirk Benedict's thoughts on the series from when it was launched (2004?) That was really funny. I ordered his 1st book "Confessions of a Kamakaze Cowboy" now. Very interesting. I'll probably be on a macrobiotic diet by my next post, lol. I've turned into such a sheep. *** I've recently rediscoved my 70's low budget roots so that means a lot of Bigfoot, daredevils, Joe Bob Briggs comentaries, feathered hair and the like. Damn you KISS! *** Music. Bought "Tooth & Nail" on CD finally. Still listening to YUI, Kou, Kiss new greatist hits & Extreme. Paul Gilbert's United States isn't terrible but I haven't listened much. *** Got a PS3 and a Samsung LCD. Ugh. *** Haven't read a novel this year before I started "Confessions..." Comics are kind of lame right now. Dark Avengers is interesting. Thos is still good. Soulfire #8 came out. Its pretty good. Final Mike *sniff* FF sucks. Buffy is dull. New Ash Wood stuff is coming. Claremont's "X-Men: 18 years too late" starts soon. Sadly, I'm looking forward to it. If I could pick one book to work on in the entire industry, that would be that one. All the books I'm working on are still a month or so away so no use in going into that. Well, my Nytol is kicking me hard so I shall sign off now. 10 August I just don't knowI'm going through something odd. I guess I just can't take anymore. Somethings gotta give. A drastic change is coming. I just don't know what yet. Since this seems to be my weird ass entertainment bitching site, I'll talk about what I've been watching. I watched Gus Van Zant's "Last Days" tonight. I really wanted to like it but I didn't. I know a lot of ppl will find it "deep" & "mesmerizing" with its artsy shots and out of the norm pace but I just found it slow and pretentious. Michael Pitt wasn't bad though. He had the whole "tortured artist" thing going for him. The supporting cast was pretty uniformly terrible. It was like a Jim Jarmusch movie in that none of the extras can actually act but in those movies that doesn't really matter. Here it just felt sloppy. I also watched Isao Yukisada's "A Day of the Planet" which wasn't a great film but I thought it was pretty cool. Its like his "American Graffiti" or I guess that would be "Japanese Graffiti." I just saw "Jam Films" the other day and his segment was wild. I think he's a really good director. "Into the Faraway Sky" was fascinating too. I don't know what I'll get of his next. I plan on working harder to learn Japanese as well because the subtitles aren't the greatest on any of these. I can pick out mistakes as ill versed as I am in the language. Watched "Honey & Clover" & "Art School Confidential" this week as well. Liked both of them. Don't know how I keep ending up seeing all these films with a school motif lately. Saw a couple more just prior to these. Finished "Dr Koto 06" this week too. I liked it. It was on a par with the 1st season but I would've liked a more definitive wrap up if there aren't going to be anymore, especially with the relationship between the Dr and Ayaka (Kou Shibasaki.). Football is starting. Ugh. Comics. Thor is still good. Warren Ellis' X-Men just started, I hope it's a good run. His Avatar stuff is getting old. I'm still sad that Michael Turner passed away. It truly affected me in a profound way, although I haven't figured out just why. Final Crisis is kind of "eh." Secret Invasion is surprisingly good in its simplicity. Mignola is drawing an issue of Hellboy, yay! Music. Got Yui's new cd. Its solid. Kou Shibasaki's new single is fair. The "b-side" song is very good. Offspring's new cd is good but I'm not listening to it as much. Got Yui's 1st album, it was great. The new Motley Crue isn't bad. Souls of We is the best Lynch song based stuff in a decade. Dokken's new one didn't do a thing for me. John Levin should be ashamed to have his name attached to those solos. Nobody likes a copycat. Paul Gilbert has a newish cd, as do Loudness. I don't have either. I want to get a Aya Ueto live dvd the worst for some reason. I'm not really even that big of a fan. I want to go to the Frazetta museum before they close this year, I need to check on that. There are two new Frazetta art books I have to save for. I like art books way better than comics. Novels. I've kind of given up on the 3 novels I was reading. "Red Planet" by Heinlein, "The Long Tomorrow" by Leigh Brackett, and the third was so good, I can't even remember what the hell it was. The first two aren't bad, I just wasn't in the head space for either. "Heart-Shaped Box" was good so I'm going to get Joe Hill's short story collection now. Gaiman's "Graveyard Book" comes out soon. I'm looking forward to that. I want to get books book Matheson, William Gibson and James Blaylock as well. I want to go into the studio this week. Not sure if that will happen because of a little medical thing I need checked on and worklog. I'm hoping though. 07 March TestThis is just mostly to see if my log in information still works. I'm certain that my e-mail will have to be reactivated. Maybe I should either update more often or do away with the account altogether. Keith 07 August updateWell this page seems to exist for no other reason than to lay dormant. When I did update it, it seemed to be only to comment on crap on TV. Its summer but TV sucks anyway. The only show coming up this fall that I can get remotely stoked for is Bionic Woman but like every other show that bunch does, I expect it to start strong then flame out. Oh well. Lets see, another football season is coming. Ugh. Thats all I can say about that. I haven't been watching any American TV lately other than Ghost Hunters for some reason (which I don't even really like) and equally inexplicably I watched "The Two Corey's" the other night. I used to like them I'm ashamed to admit, lol. I don't care who knows. Must be something to do with growing up watching those knobs. The U.S. Open is coming. Can't wait to watch Federer win that. I hope Roddick puts out Nadal. I hate that guy. I must if I'm pulling for Roddick. Hopefully Ivanovic will show well too. She should be very good on the hard courts. The reason I said American TV earlier is because I've been watching all Jdorama. Kou Shibasaki absolutely rules. I have an odd fascination with Kyoko Fukada as well even though she can't really act. I like Rina Uchiyama too. I also watch a couple British things on PBS. I saw the whole run of "As Time Goes By" and I'm watching the ones I miss now. There's another show they just started showing that I've watched a couple times. I don't remember the name but it's rather dated, about an old guy dating a younger woman. It's kind of funny. Comic books: Grant Morrison's Batman has been good. I may drop it though, I don't really like Tony Daniel. Ellis' stuff is good when it comes out. Whedon's Buffy & Runaways have been readable but his X-Men is the only thing I get fired up for. The new Star Trek yr four was a letdown and I wasn't expecting much. Thor is promising. I'm buying old Mignola stuff right now. I dont want to go into the crates of DVDs I've bought. The only novels I want to mention are "13 Phantasms" from James Blaylock which caused me to look for more of his work and "Why Not You & I" by Karl Wagner which I got but am looking forward to reading. Well thats all. I'm tired of typing. Keith 19 February Random crapI can't believe I weigh 200 lbs. Ugh. Gotta fix that.
Tv has been fairly interesting. Grey's Anatomy was pretty good. Ol' George finally got what he wanted. Don't know if that's a good thing or not but it should make for pretty good viewing later. As a character, Meredith Grey seems to be a bit of a s l u t. We obviously see why, no contact with her dad for 20 years causes her to seek approval from men. Started to add my 2 cents worth there but I'll just let it go. Cool show though.
Battlestar Galactice has been odd. I just flat out don't like the Apollo character. I also think that this last episode marked a dramatic shift in the writers' perception of the Baltar character. Previously, they seemed on the fence about if he was truly evil or not. He was always self-serving but the choice of consciously aiding the Cylons seem to me a very different shift of direction towards pure evil, which is not as interesting I feel. It's more like the old show. I would prefer that perhaps he be self-destructive and self-loathing but seeing himself as a good person. Misguided. I dunno.
I've made an effort to relax this weekend and not be so stressed about things. I've failed miseribly. I'm more screwed up than before. I just need a change. Plus I'm 200lbs at 5'9. Ugh. Oh well, maybe this week will get better. 25 January Hingis finaleI probably shouldn't post anything about this right now because I'm still pissed off. I could see in her last match that Hingis wasn't as far back as I thought she was. She's still struggling with power. I just can't stand that it's Clijsters that put her out. I really don't like her.
Hingis gave a good account of herself. Clijsters made a lot of mistakes but some of those were caused by Hingis. Hingis saw a weakness and attacked. I just wish it could've gone on. Man. 20 January Hingis 3Round of 16. Another hussy mowed down. It's still looking good. I don't know if she'll get to the final but she certainly is making it interesting. Hingis has been my favorite women's tennis player since I first saw her. Very cool. |
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