When I suggested that Emma-sensei, Ms. Fiona and I should go "girly shopping" during Emma's visit this weekend, I had no idea it would turn into a seven (7) hour shopping extravanganza during which we didn't leave the Canberra Centre. Good thing too, because it's starting to get really cold outside.
It was so much fun! Highlights: Fiona realised a lifetime dream when she purchased knee-high lace-up stompy platform boots. The boots are a freakin' work of art and possibly even cooler than you imagine: all the shoes in the store have style names, and these boots were called simply Trash. Emma found some very flattering jeans in a very pleasing size and I spent more money on a single pair of shoes than I ever have in my life. Fun!
The shopping just doesn't stop, either. I'll be meeting Emma-sensei in Sydney in two weeks for a shopping trip to Kinokuniya. Given how much time we can spend discussing Chinese vs. Japanese without being in a bookstore that sells books in each, I fear we may spend even longer in one single bookstore than we spent this Saturday. I also fear how much time I may spend planning an optimal route for ensuring that the maximum number of manga are purchased, while still giving us time to randomly wander.
And I asked Emma-sensei to teach me to count to five in Chinese. It's hard! I'm still fascinated by the similarities between the pronunciation of kanji in Chinese and Japanese and how the two languages can have such different grammar and sounds (there are no tones in Japanese), but so many of the abstract concepts are written the same way. For instance, the Chinese concept of the Tao (pronounced Dow) is written 道 (in Japanese: dou) and in both languages literally means, "the way".
Also in LindaNews, work's getting a bit stressy as I'm starting to actually demonstrate the prototype I've been working on for the past few months. People seem fairly pleased with what I've been doing, which means that I might shortly have to stop using "but this is just a prototype" as an excuse. Also, sorry if this is a little incoherent, I'm suddenly really tired. Zzz.
May 23, 2005
May 15, 2005
Con Report
Apologies in advance for the Emma-sensei indulgent inclusion of giant pictures.
This was the second anime convention I've been to, so now I can generalise that they are fun. I was remarkably social (for me) and met some nice people including Alison who knows Evan and thus Simon, and entirely independently knows me because I used to work with her mum. She was very amazed by this, and by the fact that so many of us knew each other from Townsville.
Right, first of all: loot. I bought a "lot" of stuff, but that's because I haven't been to Sydney for ages. I'm well overdue for a trip to Kinokuniya to buy an embarrassing amount of anime/manga/merchandise. Hopefully Xopher, Emma-sensei and I will be heading out to Sydney in the next few weeks for a weekend of shopping and hangin' out.
Starting in the top left corner: Two pencil boards (a bit like mouse pads) from the anime Bleach: the white and blue one is Ishida, the president of the sewing club, and all-round very odd young man. His love interest/rival is beside him: the orange haired boy is Ichigo, the star of the show and part time shinigami.
Across the top are the three issue of Bronze (in Chinese) that I bought in the auction after being totally egged on by two yaoi fans behind me. Yaoi is Japanese explicit homosexual anime/manga/whatever. It's pronounced "yowie" which caused the expected "I thought you were talking about the chocolate bunyip" comments from the peanut gallery. There's also another Chinese yaoi manga up there, but at least I had some reason to buy that one (more on that later).
In front of them are two shirts: the big yellow and red G from Gatchaman (not G-Force which is the Americanised and lame version) and some kitty witch thing from .Hack Sign. The Gatchaman shirt was because they're a ninja science team, and that's so cool. The kitty witch shirt was because Alison talked the Madman guy into swapping it for a packet of gum. Alison has mad trading skillz. I was going to give him the gum, but she was going to sell him gum for a dollar a stick. Since the shirts were $5, he was kind of getting a bargain...? I'm not sure how it happened, but I think I should try to do more shopping with Alison around.
Between them is a kitty badge, but there's a better picture of it below.
The black shirt on the far left is from the Sydney Uni Anime Club and has a bunch of cute faces with manga expressions. Below that is a very amusing bumper sticker "My other car is a 60 foot transforming robot" which I'm still hoping to convince Chris to put on his car.
There's a stack of other stickers, two badges and tote bag, also from Sydney Uni's anime club. Man, package deals? They so saw me coming.
Standing between them and the Gatchaman shirt is Envy - but more on him later.
Another pencil board, this one with three of the Sins - Envy, Lust and Gluttony - from Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA). Bless.
Also from FMA, the figure of Alphonse Elric is standing on OzTaku, an amateur Australian manga magazine. I bought the first issue last year at this con, so felt kind of obliged to support them again. Damn, Australian fan art is just so very lame... Sorry, but yeah. Ganbatte, ne.
The white tshirt in the bottom right is from Raxephon which is yes, another giant robot anime. Hard to resist a $5 shirt.
Another Chinese manga (sigh) and then a Japanese boy love manga! Whoot! It's actually called Beautiful Boy Love, and it's the manga of a movie I have about beautiful Japanese boys who work as "hosts" in Hong Kong. Since the manga has furigana (which make it easier to read), there's a good chance I'll be able to work out the whole thing. My reading is getting much better lately. It's still amazing how much improvement I can see in my own reading... I love being able to pick up a manga in Japanese and actually fucking read it. So cool.
Anyway, I had to buy the other two Chinese manga to get this Japanese one. Actually I had to buy four, and four Bronzes, but after rather harshly outbidding a vociferously-disappointed 13-year-old girl, I ended up selling her two of them for $5. I really enjoyed the auction, and would have spent even more money if there had been more cool stuff for sale. I later ended up chatting with the woman who sold these Chinese manga, and she is also cool and interesting and has my email address.
Next to them is the character book from Yami no Matsuei which is all in Japanese and was probably overpriced, but YnM 0wnz my ass.
And standing on that is Hughes from FMA. And here's a better picture of the three FMA figures. Check out the detail. I love how Hughes has his throwing knife behind his back (and there's probably another knife in the hand that's in his pocket). Japanese anime figures are so gorgeous, and incredibly detailed. You should be able to see that there's a tattoo on the back of Envy's thigh. Envy's the androgynous one (eep), in the skirt (eep), with the bare legs and the halter top (omfg)... The suit of armour is Alphonse, and he's from a different release of figures, and thus is probably not quite big enough to be in scale with the rest of them, but he's close enough.
Here are all my FMA figures that are at this scale (yes, I have more than this, shutup). Izumi is the woman crouching in the martial arts pose. I love her purple sandals and dreads. I could blither for (further) ages, but my fingers are getting sore!
Almost done: a close up of the Kuroneko-sama (Lord Black Cat) badge from the anime Trigun, and a little round ball thingy of Saizou the angry pig from the anime Peacemaker Kurogane. Kuroneko-sama came in a Trigun two pack with a badge of Vash the blond and ditzy gunslinger, but I gave Vash to my friend Anne who came along for the whole day to the convention. It was lovely to have her there and she was very patient with my habit of dashing off to start conversations with interesting looking people or have yet another look at the same vendor stands that I'd already looked at twice. Simon and Chris were very good value too: amazingly willing to carry my stuff and generally supportive and cool. I had a posse, yo. 8)
I spent a lot more time with people than last year, and can present the following tips:
1. Wear something interesting, because that will give people a chance to open a conversation with you.
2. It only takes thirty seconds or so to realise that you don't actually want to be talking to someone (or they don't want to be talking to you), so what the hell, give it a try. It's only thirty seconds.
3. At 33, I finally have enough poise to decide when I want out of a conversation, and get out of it.
4. Despite above mentioned aura-of-calm, I can still get a little het up and shouty if other people are heckling too. (Must work on this.)
5. Finding other women interested in yaoi is very neat, especially when they blush adorably or filthy-giggle when you talk about blow jobs in public.
Speaking of yaoi, there was also a yaoi panel which was very interesting - it was all about female sexuality and expressing desire and why it's so very hard to admit things like, "I think Envy is incredibly hot" in public. But that might be a blog for another day, perhaps.
This was the second anime convention I've been to, so now I can generalise that they are fun. I was remarkably social (for me) and met some nice people including Alison who knows Evan and thus Simon, and entirely independently knows me because I used to work with her mum. She was very amazed by this, and by the fact that so many of us knew each other from Townsville.
Right, first of all: loot. I bought a "lot" of stuff, but that's because I haven't been to Sydney for ages. I'm well overdue for a trip to Kinokuniya to buy an embarrassing amount of anime/manga/merchandise. Hopefully Xopher, Emma-sensei and I will be heading out to Sydney in the next few weeks for a weekend of shopping and hangin' out.
Starting in the top left corner: Two pencil boards (a bit like mouse pads) from the anime Bleach: the white and blue one is Ishida, the president of the sewing club, and all-round very odd young man. His love interest/rival is beside him: the orange haired boy is Ichigo, the star of the show and part time shinigami.
Across the top are the three issue of Bronze (in Chinese) that I bought in the auction after being totally egged on by two yaoi fans behind me. Yaoi is Japanese explicit homosexual anime/manga/whatever. It's pronounced "yowie" which caused the expected "I thought you were talking about the chocolate bunyip" comments from the peanut gallery. There's also another Chinese yaoi manga up there, but at least I had some reason to buy that one (more on that later).
In front of them are two shirts: the big yellow and red G from Gatchaman (not G-Force which is the Americanised and lame version) and some kitty witch thing from .Hack Sign. The Gatchaman shirt was because they're a ninja science team, and that's so cool. The kitty witch shirt was because Alison talked the Madman guy into swapping it for a packet of gum. Alison has mad trading skillz. I was going to give him the gum, but she was going to sell him gum for a dollar a stick. Since the shirts were $5, he was kind of getting a bargain...? I'm not sure how it happened, but I think I should try to do more shopping with Alison around.
Between them is a kitty badge, but there's a better picture of it below.
The black shirt on the far left is from the Sydney Uni Anime Club and has a bunch of cute faces with manga expressions. Below that is a very amusing bumper sticker "My other car is a 60 foot transforming robot" which I'm still hoping to convince Chris to put on his car.
There's a stack of other stickers, two badges and tote bag, also from Sydney Uni's anime club. Man, package deals? They so saw me coming.
Standing between them and the Gatchaman shirt is Envy - but more on him later.
Another pencil board, this one with three of the Sins - Envy, Lust and Gluttony - from Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA). Bless.
Also from FMA, the figure of Alphonse Elric is standing on OzTaku, an amateur Australian manga magazine. I bought the first issue last year at this con, so felt kind of obliged to support them again. Damn, Australian fan art is just so very lame... Sorry, but yeah. Ganbatte, ne.
The white tshirt in the bottom right is from Raxephon which is yes, another giant robot anime. Hard to resist a $5 shirt.
Another Chinese manga (sigh) and then a Japanese boy love manga! Whoot! It's actually called Beautiful Boy Love, and it's the manga of a movie I have about beautiful Japanese boys who work as "hosts" in Hong Kong. Since the manga has furigana (which make it easier to read), there's a good chance I'll be able to work out the whole thing. My reading is getting much better lately. It's still amazing how much improvement I can see in my own reading... I love being able to pick up a manga in Japanese and actually fucking read it. So cool.
Anyway, I had to buy the other two Chinese manga to get this Japanese one. Actually I had to buy four, and four Bronzes, but after rather harshly outbidding a vociferously-disappointed 13-year-old girl, I ended up selling her two of them for $5. I really enjoyed the auction, and would have spent even more money if there had been more cool stuff for sale. I later ended up chatting with the woman who sold these Chinese manga, and she is also cool and interesting and has my email address.
Next to them is the character book from Yami no Matsuei which is all in Japanese and was probably overpriced, but YnM 0wnz my ass.
And standing on that is Hughes from FMA. And here's a better picture of the three FMA figures. Check out the detail. I love how Hughes has his throwing knife behind his back (and there's probably another knife in the hand that's in his pocket). Japanese anime figures are so gorgeous, and incredibly detailed. You should be able to see that there's a tattoo on the back of Envy's thigh. Envy's the androgynous one (eep), in the skirt (eep), with the bare legs and the halter top (omfg)... The suit of armour is Alphonse, and he's from a different release of figures, and thus is probably not quite big enough to be in scale with the rest of them, but he's close enough.
Here are all my FMA figures that are at this scale (yes, I have more than this, shutup). Izumi is the woman crouching in the martial arts pose. I love her purple sandals and dreads. I could blither for (further) ages, but my fingers are getting sore!
Almost done: a close up of the Kuroneko-sama (Lord Black Cat) badge from the anime Trigun, and a little round ball thingy of Saizou the angry pig from the anime Peacemaker Kurogane. Kuroneko-sama came in a Trigun two pack with a badge of Vash the blond and ditzy gunslinger, but I gave Vash to my friend Anne who came along for the whole day to the convention. It was lovely to have her there and she was very patient with my habit of dashing off to start conversations with interesting looking people or have yet another look at the same vendor stands that I'd already looked at twice. Simon and Chris were very good value too: amazingly willing to carry my stuff and generally supportive and cool. I had a posse, yo. 8)I spent a lot more time with people than last year, and can present the following tips:
1. Wear something interesting, because that will give people a chance to open a conversation with you.
2. It only takes thirty seconds or so to realise that you don't actually want to be talking to someone (or they don't want to be talking to you), so what the hell, give it a try. It's only thirty seconds.
3. At 33, I finally have enough poise to decide when I want out of a conversation, and get out of it.
4. Despite above mentioned aura-of-calm, I can still get a little het up and shouty if other people are heckling too. (Must work on this.)
5. Finding other women interested in yaoi is very neat, especially when they blush adorably or filthy-giggle when you talk about blow jobs in public.
Speaking of yaoi, there was also a yaoi panel which was very interesting - it was all about female sexuality and expressing desire and why it's so very hard to admit things like, "I think Envy is incredibly hot" in public. But that might be a blog for another day, perhaps.
May 11, 2005
AMVs
One of the things I regret about only finding out about anime.au.05 a few days ago is that I've missed on the anime music video competion.
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-produced music video created from clips from one or more shows. I've never made one before but AMVs, and their media fandom equivalent, vids, are fascinating and I've always wanted to try my hand, given that I seem to have a fairly good "eye".
Here are some of the ideas that I've been playing with in my head for AMVs.
Go West, Village People: GetBackers. Go West is a fabulous gay anthem, and I'd love to see its perky and overly enthusiastic gay illustrated by Ban and Ginji. The main visual themes would be the rescuing, hugging and running towards each other. Sunsets and sunrises would be used for romantic effect: Ginji <3 Ban. It could also use footage of Kazuki and Jubei if required, but mainly Ginji and Ban because they are teh cute.
Learning to Fly, Pink Floyd or Foo Fighters: Yukikaze. Yukikaze is a deeply beautiful anime with stunning computer-generated atmospheres and planes in flight, contrasted with lavishly animated characters. Jack is bearded, blond and obviously American. Rei is Japanese, zombie pale, and probably the least attractive main character I've ever seen in an anime. Nevertheless... 8) "Tongue tied and twisted / just an earth bound misfit, I" This song is so perfect him. I'd take the footage from the dvd of the first two of five planned OVAs, so I could get super high definition video footage, and then play with it. Depending on how much time was left over after "woo, planes" footage got boring, I might try to focus on the triangle between Jack, Rei and Yukikaze, because that never gets boring. I haven't decided which version of the song to use, but I'm tending towards the original, because it has the creepier guitar bits, and the tower chat in the middle.
Unbelievable, EMF: Various. "The things, you say / Your purple prose just gives you away / The things, you say / You're unbelievable." Very very silly idea for grabbing together some of the worst subtitles from anime: like the early episode of Fullmetal Alchemist where Gluttony was subtitled as "Blatny"; and the million and one ways to subtitle the traditional Japanese habit of saying "itadakimasu" before meals. (Everything from "I'm eating!" to "Looks good." to "Thanks for the meal!")This is not a particularly well thought through idea, but it could be fairly funny. The important thing will be the complete lack of context for the clips which should help to make them funny. I don't intend this to be mean (after all, where would I be without fansubbers?) but more of a play on the whole "Japanese expert" conceit. And I'll probably put some Evil Doctor Muraki (he's so evil!) from Yami no Matsuei in, because he loves a bit of purple prose.
The clues I've picked up from the best AMVs I've seen:
1. Use the music. Not just the lyrics which people can miss, but the base line and other musical changes to trigger changes in the visuals.
2. Don't, for the love of god, mess with the aspect ratio. This makes me burn with the heat of a thousand suns when otherwise perfectly serviceable AMVs are fucked up by squishing everyone from letterbox into 4:3.
3. Don't put the subtitles on unless you want people to read them. People can't help but read them. Letterbox (without messing with the ratio) to get rid of them if you have to.
4. Funny is good.
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-produced music video created from clips from one or more shows. I've never made one before but AMVs, and their media fandom equivalent, vids, are fascinating and I've always wanted to try my hand, given that I seem to have a fairly good "eye".
Here are some of the ideas that I've been playing with in my head for AMVs.
Go West, Village People: GetBackers. Go West is a fabulous gay anthem, and I'd love to see its perky and overly enthusiastic gay illustrated by Ban and Ginji. The main visual themes would be the rescuing, hugging and running towards each other. Sunsets and sunrises would be used for romantic effect: Ginji <3 Ban. It could also use footage of Kazuki and Jubei if required, but mainly Ginji and Ban because they are teh cute.
Learning to Fly, Pink Floyd or Foo Fighters: Yukikaze. Yukikaze is a deeply beautiful anime with stunning computer-generated atmospheres and planes in flight, contrasted with lavishly animated characters. Jack is bearded, blond and obviously American. Rei is Japanese, zombie pale, and probably the least attractive main character I've ever seen in an anime. Nevertheless... 8) "Tongue tied and twisted / just an earth bound misfit, I" This song is so perfect him. I'd take the footage from the dvd of the first two of five planned OVAs, so I could get super high definition video footage, and then play with it. Depending on how much time was left over after "woo, planes" footage got boring, I might try to focus on the triangle between Jack, Rei and Yukikaze, because that never gets boring. I haven't decided which version of the song to use, but I'm tending towards the original, because it has the creepier guitar bits, and the tower chat in the middle.
Unbelievable, EMF: Various. "The things, you say / Your purple prose just gives you away / The things, you say / You're unbelievable." Very very silly idea for grabbing together some of the worst subtitles from anime: like the early episode of Fullmetal Alchemist where Gluttony was subtitled as "Blatny"; and the million and one ways to subtitle the traditional Japanese habit of saying "itadakimasu" before meals. (Everything from "I'm eating!" to "Looks good." to "Thanks for the meal!")This is not a particularly well thought through idea, but it could be fairly funny. The important thing will be the complete lack of context for the clips which should help to make them funny. I don't intend this to be mean (after all, where would I be without fansubbers?) but more of a play on the whole "Japanese expert" conceit. And I'll probably put some Evil Doctor Muraki (he's so evil!) from Yami no Matsuei in, because he loves a bit of purple prose.
The clues I've picked up from the best AMVs I've seen:
1. Use the music. Not just the lyrics which people can miss, but the base line and other musical changes to trigger changes in the visuals.
2. Don't, for the love of god, mess with the aspect ratio. This makes me burn with the heat of a thousand suns when otherwise perfectly serviceable AMVs are fucked up by squishing everyone from letterbox into 4:3.
3. Don't put the subtitles on unless you want people to read them. People can't help but read them. Letterbox (without messing with the ratio) to get rid of them if you have to.
4. Funny is good.
May 10, 2005
Anime Con!
I update because Emma-sensei tells me to.
The annual Canberra anime convention is being held this weekend. Last year was lots of fun, and was filled with interesting people, and even more interesting Japanese stuff, including a subtitled episode of Monkey which made me gibber with glee at their voices. I'm quite absurdly looking forward to the weekend, even through the miasma of tired and busy which is currently clouding my future.
My clearance is "almost" complete. All they need is proof of every job I've held for the last ten years. *_* The easiest way to do this is group certificates, but I've moved many times over the last ten years, and had quite a few different jobs. And I've always sucked at doing my taxes. Or I could write to the companies/universities involved (those that still exist) and ask for a record of service, but this is even more outrageously unlikely to succeed.
My estimate is I'm in for at least six hours of trolling through the dim dark *dusty* past, finding bits and pieces in an ultimately futile task. I've already signed a statutory declaration that my employment history is true and correct so what good will some of the group certificates do? Well, apparently until I find them, I'll have to stay down here in exile. And since "we're" now waiting on me to find the paperwork, it's now my fault and no pressure, but we really need you upstairs.
If the above doesn't make it obvious, work is getting rather stressy. While I've been getting some very positive feedback about my performance, it's still the case that they're expecting a prototype very soon, and it's not quite ready. And a whole bunch of people went to their first ever training course about my area of expertise yesterday and now they have all these mad ideas about installing software and changing how things are done, and I'm sure I don't have the energy and time to waste explaining it to them. And cleaning up after them when they fuck it up.
Hmm, could be I'm just tired and grumpy this morning. I think I should have a big drink of water and get the fuck over myself. 8)
The annual Canberra anime convention is being held this weekend. Last year was lots of fun, and was filled with interesting people, and even more interesting Japanese stuff, including a subtitled episode of Monkey which made me gibber with glee at their voices. I'm quite absurdly looking forward to the weekend, even through the miasma of tired and busy which is currently clouding my future.
My clearance is "almost" complete. All they need is proof of every job I've held for the last ten years. *_* The easiest way to do this is group certificates, but I've moved many times over the last ten years, and had quite a few different jobs. And I've always sucked at doing my taxes. Or I could write to the companies/universities involved (those that still exist) and ask for a record of service, but this is even more outrageously unlikely to succeed.
My estimate is I'm in for at least six hours of trolling through the dim dark *dusty* past, finding bits and pieces in an ultimately futile task. I've already signed a statutory declaration that my employment history is true and correct so what good will some of the group certificates do? Well, apparently until I find them, I'll have to stay down here in exile. And since "we're" now waiting on me to find the paperwork, it's now my fault and no pressure, but we really need you upstairs.
If the above doesn't make it obvious, work is getting rather stressy. While I've been getting some very positive feedback about my performance, it's still the case that they're expecting a prototype very soon, and it's not quite ready. And a whole bunch of people went to their first ever training course about my area of expertise yesterday and now they have all these mad ideas about installing software and changing how things are done, and I'm sure I don't have the energy and time to waste explaining it to them. And cleaning up after them when they fuck it up.
Hmm, could be I'm just tired and grumpy this morning. I think I should have a big drink of water and get the fuck over myself. 8)
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