Thursday, July 27, 2006

It's Batman vs. Wolverine! Except not.
Trailer for The Prestige.

I've been following this movie for a quite a while now. It's a Nolan film, so I have high expectations for it.

David Bowie is part of the cast too, oddly enough. He's the one who in the trailer says, "Nothing is impossible," though I didn't recognize him at all until someone pointed him out. I suppose the moustache threw me off.

Speaking of deeply psychological films, I recently watched Donnie Darko for the first time. What a strange movie. Seriously, it's crackier than Fight Club.
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Monday, July 24, 2006

MY BJD JUST ARRIVED, YOU GUYS! I'M ABOUT TO OPEN THE BOX! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

And Spirited Away is showing on CN. Yay!

EDIT: Oh my God, you guys, he's so pretty. ;_;

I would carry him, but I don't want to soil him with my fingers.
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Saturday, July 22, 2006

Full-length live-action Honey and Clover movie trailer.

Also, I've heard that Yoshiki of X-Japan fame is the music director for the upcoming Rose of Versailles movie. I don't think this has been confirmed yet, but if it's true... wow.
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Thursday, July 20, 2006

...in the space between the sky and the streets, the head wind
The Cirque du Soleil show was last night, and it was sooooooo much fun! There were a lot of different acts, so I'll just go through a few of my favorites.

First off, the production I went to see was Corteo, which is a light-hearted story about a dying clown's adventures in a carnival-like world... which sounds a little weird, but I assure you that it was a lot of fun.

So there was the Chandelier act, which involved three sets of bars and ropes shaped to look like chandeliers from which the performers swung on from their arms, legs, necks, etc. Following that was the Bouncing Bed act, during which performers jumped and flipped on two trampolines shaped like beds. Later on was an act involving a ladder which the performer climbed up and down from and even did a handstand on without any support other than the ladder's bottom legs, all while trying to reach an angel floating in the air above him.

It wasn't all acrobatic stunts, however; there was one act involving a woman being lifted by six huge balloons, and at one point, she floated into the audience. Most gently pushed against the bottom of her feet and let her slowly drift back towards the stage, but one guy stood up, grabbed her feet, and hurled her away! (Though she really only ended up moving about five feet, haha.)

There was also a funny little act involving a golf ball, which was really a person wearing a white cap whose head was poking out from a hole in the stage, trying desperately not to get hit by the golf stick.

ALSO, this is an extremely fangirlish thing to say, but some of the male performers were seriously hot. I mean, really, wow. Thank the Lord for Frenchmen. XD

Anyway, I found a video of the Teetertot act. From what I can tell, what's happening is that a few guys are arguing over who gets to use the teetertot, and resolve the dispute through a bounce off. You can also get a glimpse of the six big balloons at the beginning of the vid. (Sorry for the potentially long loading time, but the quality is rather excellent for Youtube.)

EDIT: Oh, and I started on wheelthrowing in pottery class. This probably goes without saying, but it's really hard. I was just barely able to make a short cup, even with the teacher helping me every step of the way.

EDIT #2: AND ALSO, there was about a ten minute delay before the Cirque show began, so some of the performers came out into the audience and pretended to have a water fight with water squirted out of their ears. Then one guy ran in with what seemed like a bucket full of water, but when he threw it, a handful of confetti flew out onto the audience. Just thought that was a fun little tidbit. :)
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Monday, July 17, 2006

Taken from the "A Course in Bad Fanfiction" humor article I'm currently writing:

Let's use another Naruto example to demonstrate what happens when the dominant and submissive halves of the relationship aren't clearly defined:

"Are you an idiot?" Sasuke yelled, grabbing Naruto by the shoulders. Naruto winced at the tightness of his grip. "Don't run into a horde of enemies if all you can do is swing your fists around like a moron! Just watch from the sidelines if you're that much of a bother!"

Naruto glared at the other boy, and smacked his hands off his shoulders, "Hey, asshole, you aren't my sensei, so don't boss me around!"

"I'm just saying you should think a little sometimes," Sasuke's voice grew louder with each word, "So I won't have to rescue you during each and every damn mission!"

"I never asked you to help me! And I don't need it either! Don't be so full yourself, jerk!"

As you can see, there is ZERO potential for cute love scenes between the two as things stand, and what's the point if it's not cute? So, we'll tweak things around a bit:

"Are you an idiot?" Sasuke yelled, grabbing Naruto by the shoulders. Naruto winced at the tightness of his grip. "Don't run into a horde of enemies if all you can do is swing your fists around like a moron! Just watch from the sidelines if you're that much of a bother!"

Naruto stared at Sasuke with wide eyes, before apologetically averting his gaze to the ground. "You're right. I'm completely useless, aren't I? I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He bit his bottom lip, fighting back the tears welling up in his eyes.

Sasuke eyes softened at the sight. He pulled the blond-haired boy into a tight embrace, and a blush immediately rose to Naruto's cheeks.

"No, I'm sorry, Naruto," Sasuke said softly, lovingly, "I should have never said something that horrible to you."

Naruto buried his face into the other boy's shoulder, "I try so hard to be useful to you, but I can't do anything. I'm sorry."

"Shh. It's okay, Naruto. It's okay."

See? Naruto is changed to become a more submissive character, while Sasuke is written as a gentle dominant half. These changes are perfectly acceptable, necessary even, as there is now the possibility of many cute situations between the two, and cuteness is everything in romantic fanfiction!

-----

*cackling*

My bad slash fanfiction is the best thing EVER.
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Sunday, July 16, 2006

Internets 101

Yes, that's the most exciting thing to happen in my life the past week.
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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

splashing water on a world that's forgotten about loneliness
It's official. Honey and Clover II rocks my josei socks off. In other words, I watched the second episode. I'll probably write more about it on the OB or something.

Also, Ouran animated icons! I like the first one especially; wanwan!Tamaki is the cutest thing EVER.

See the rest here.

I have a bit of a favor to ask of anyone who reads this. If you all could please give me the names of any good anime review sites, podcasts, videocasts, etc. you know of that are not already on this list:

Anime News Network
Anime on DVD
Anime Planet
Anime Academy
Anime Secrets
LELOLA.net
THEM Anime Reviews
Anime Meta Review
The Anime Review
Animetric
Anime Critic
Anime Cafe
Akemi's Anime World
Weekly Anime Review Podcast
Otaku Generation
Anime World Order
Anime 101
Ninja Consultant

Thank you, it would really help. :)
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Sunday, July 9, 2006

and it's still winter in my wonderland
A few things:

--Whined my way into getting tickets for a Cirque du Soliel show on the 19th. Wheeeee!
--Also, taking my first pottery class on Wednesday. Double whee!
--On episode 34 of Kaleido Star. WTF HAPPENED TO YURI? I guess I'm the only one who cares about him. ;_;
--Waiting in agony for the subbed releases of Ouran #14 and Honey and Clover II #2.

aghjkl;

I should really write something. In fact, I'm gonna go write something RIGHT NOW.
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Friday, July 7, 2006

into the palace we dance
Title: Spirit of the Stage
Anime: Kaleido Star
Creator: JCD
Song: Move - Destiny
Download Link

I just sent this off as a recommendation for next week's Otaku Attraction. I'm sorry to say that Youtube quality does this absolutely no justice, so to anyone who has an account at AMV.org, I suggest you download the high-quality vid at the link above.

After watching the very first episode of Kaleido Star, the first thought that came to mind was that it would make great AMV material, so I was very happy upon finding this vid. :)

Anyway, I watched Pirates: Dead Man's Chest earlier today. If you lower your expectations a bit, it's quite an entertaining movie. The "Savage Island" scenes early on were probably the most enjoyable in the whole movie, though admittedly, it had nothing to do with the plot. XD
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Wednesday, July 5, 2006

The Pillows cover Nirvana's Breed in San Francisco (June 28).

The sound is low quality and it's out of sync, but what the heck, it's still pretty cool. My question is, why the hell didn't they perform this at the Chicago concert? D:

Anyway, I celebrated my 4th of July by wandering around Navy Pier for two hours, watching a Cirque Shanghai show (which was really really really good, and it came at a perfect time, as I've been wanting to see a circus show since I started watching Kaleido Star last weekend), then watching the fireworks show that followed.

And now, I'm off to pick up my HMC DVD from the post office. :)
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