Sun, 23 Feb: Weekly Review 50

I read the sixth volume of the Mao manga I bought today. When I got it home I realised I got the wrong volume, because I don’t have and haven’t read volume five. It was no biggy in the end because it was pretty easy catching up with the storyline. Can’t say I’m loving it, and author Rumiko’s constant use of archaic Japanese concepts like ‘shikigami’ (servant?) is tiring. I might leave it at this point, for now.

It seems to be a week of finding lost things. My old Joy Division t-shirt, which I haven’t seen for years, showed up! It had fallen down the back of an old dresser I had that I gave to my brother, who found it. There was also an old pair of shorts I valued that I called my Bright stubbies, because I bought them long ago on a memorable holiday in Bright. I thought this photo was the last time I’d ever see the t-shirt, but no. Yay!

I watched the third ep of Ghost In the Shell 2045. Purin was featured a bit in this one. Motoko revealed she suspected Purin was a post-human, an interesting development. There was a nice scene of Purin questioning the AI that had orchestrated the whole Sustainable War idea and from which came the post-humans. At the end of the ep Purin seems to get killed by the President’s bodyguards, which kinda sucks. I’m sure she returns, because I saw it the first time around, but I forget how this was achieved.

Also watched the fourth ep of GITS 2045 season two. Following on from the last ep, it seems Purin’s actions in attacking the President’s security guy was to stop him from assassinating the President. So she dies a hero, of sorts. Later, some of the fabulous Tachikomas, upset at the death of their leader, do an investigation into her death and her past, and come up with a way to resurrect her.

My favourite band The Kinks have a well-known song called David Watts which is loosely based on an actual person. I was doing the holds at Bayswater library today and guess what name came up for one of our patrons? Yes, David Watts. He was borrowing To Kill a Mockingbird. Can’t help but feel there’s some significance there, but not sure what it is. Anyway, the Jam famously did a cover of the song, which segues me to the sad fact that their drummer, Rick Buckler, died today. Every one of us who has fond memories of The Jam also have fond memories of good old Rick, even though he wasn’t the main player (that was Paul Weller). Player of one of my all-time favourite drum rolls in rock (from Thick As Thieves – so tight, so punchy), RIP you good sticksman, you.

As expected, it turns out my fave heavy metal band Within Temptation, who I’m seeing next Friday at Knotfest, are doing a sideshow at Watts in Melbourne. Only problem is, it’s already sold out! Damn! I’ve put in for resale tickets with Tixel, but I don’t hold much hope. I would so much rather watch them at Watts with the fans than at the shortened gig at Knotfest with a bunch of non-fans, but that’s how it goes – for now.

I watched the second ep of Twice’s latest Time To Twice series. I like how this series brings out their goofiness. It’s something that amazes us Onces when we’ve seen how cool and professional they are up on the stage at their concerts – we get to see a different side of them. But this is true of pretty much all Kpop reality tv shows that feature Idols. They’re designed to bring out different aspects of their personalities. There’s a part in this episode where the members are required to split up from their teams that I didn’t really get, but it afforded us the priceless shot of my girl Mina looking very pouty when Jeongyeon left her team.

I watched the second dvd of my Aespa Aepisode dvds. This was simply the final part of the concert I watched yesterday. It was after the finale and the girls were in their merch civvies performing a relaxed couple of final songs for the crowd. It went on and on with the girls doing multi photo opportunities with the dancers and themselves and the crowd, then going from one side of the stage to the other, saying their goodbyes. The crowd seemed to eat it up. I also watched the Behind scenes of their first four music videos. It was okay, but I don’t think the girls are as engaging in these things as are my faves, Twice. And this would have been the perfect place to have included the actual music videos they were participating in. Yes, I’m still sore about that.

Read another section of Complicated Game. I’m up to the Big Express album. This was on the song Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Her. I’d always found the melody a bit ungainly, and in this interview Andy explains why. His melody goes outside of the chord structure he uses – something the producer David Lord and band member Dave Gregory frowned upon, but Andy stuck to his guns. I like that in his defence of this he said, ‘…it makes a rub there, but that’s what I’m going for’. He even went on to say it was his favourite of his XTC songs at that point.

I’m still reading the Bill Eddy book about Narcissists and Sociopaths. Most of it’s been pretty spot on with respect to the psychology of some leaders, but I think he drops the ball a bit in his chapter about Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. To suggest he is manufacturing a Target of Blame in saying the US is in conflict with his country is simply wrong, because it’s so very true. I like his idea that High Conflict Personalities split people into four camps: loyalist, resisters, moderates and dropouts. His solution is for people to unite rather than be divided and to counteract the HCP’s claims with facts and repetition.

Transferred the rest of the Rare RCA album and made a cd of it. The songs are pretty raw. I hadn’t realised the Syssys song Baby Don’t Do It is the old Smokey Robinson song. There’s a lot of hokey old surfie stuff on this, but also some gems – though I have a few of these on other albums.

I watched more Urusei Yatsura. This time it was ep 84, Terror Attack of the Killer Potatoes, and 90, Lady Ryuunosuke, and 91, Document, Who’ll Be Miss Tomoboki? I also checked out number 85, Galactic Teacher CAO-2 Strikes Back, coz it features Benten. I didn’t love the killer potatoes one. Some of it was nicely surreal, but the premise of Lum, Ataru, Mendo and Shinobu being menaced by killer pototoes whilst on holidays was weirder than usual – even for UY. And there’s a scene where they try to destroy the potatoes by eating them, which is pretty gross. Lady Ryuunosuke was nice for the My Fair Lady references, but I didn’t love how the teacher Onsen was cast as the Henry Higgens character. I too want to see Ryu break free from her father’s psychotic fetish of keeping her looking like a boy, but I fear it will never happen – though this ep makes a good stab at trying.

The Miss Tomoboki episode is a real highlight of the series. After the main contestants – Lum, Shinobu and the other main female characters at the school – voice their feminist disdain for the idea of beauty pageants, the episode settles down into a manic war for who will win. Factions gather around each contestant, and even the other local schools get in on the act. It all comes down to the main judge, who is that cad Ataru Moroboshi, who can never be trusted. He takes shameless advantage of the situation by setting up multiple dates by bribing many of the contestants and other interested female parties. But he knows he can’t follow through on his promises, so he takes off with the prize money before the contest is even called. It’s interesting how here even Lum was relegated to a mere contestant who would not necessarily be a shoo-in to win (even though she’s clearly Best Girl). The CAO episode, although not strictly speaking a Top 50 ep, was a lot of fun. We see a lot of pre-school Lum, Oyuke, Ran and Benten looking very cute as they try to get the best of their teacher, CAO-2, a robot shaped like a giant metal blackboard duster. There’s a strange awkward scene where the teacher bends Ran over his knee and spanks her, which seems so wrong. Give me more Benten, I say!

I watched more of the Top 50 Urusei Yatsura anime eps. These were 94, The Story of a Travelling Snowman, and the big number 100, Big Trouble In Bigger Vault. The Snowman ep was very surreal with Ataru spending a crazy snow-filled night in his backyard interacting with a sentient snowman who shape-shifts into the appearance of some of the many girls and women he has lusted after. He’s a dribbling mess (and very cold) by morning. The experience seems to give him a new perspective on Lum, who calls him inside and suggests he has a hot bath after his ordeal. There’s a weird scene earlier when, while on a school marathon, Ataru thinks Mendo is touching his butt, and it goes on for way too long. Ataru seriously considers the possibility that Mendo is actually gay and lusting after his ‘beautiful butt’. It was actually the snowman trying to get his attention but, like I said, it’s weird. The 100^th episode is a two-hander between Ataru and Mendo, who are stuck inside Mendo’s huge security vault where Mendo has been trying to impress upon Ataru Moroboshi his essential superiority over him. Surprisingly, Lum never appears in this episode. The two guys spend much of the episode coming to terms with their relationship while they battle the many security features the vault has to offer, including a water trap that sends them in increments up to the roof. My favourite bit was when they had come to some parity and Mendo calls Ataru Moroboshkun – a nutty endearment. It’s such a funny thing for him to say.

Watched two more of the Top 50 Urusei Yatsuras, these being ep 101 Top Secret Pool Party Peeping Plan and ep 102 Sakura’s Childhood. I feel the peeping parting ep was better done in the earlier episode when Ataru went to the inter-dimensional onsen and ended up lusting after a statue of a girl. The premise in this one was too sleazy (Ataru plus Mendo and the Stormtroopers are hoping for a perve of female flesh at an onsen) and there were some OTT gay fan service (Mendo is kissed by an inebriated guard). Sakura’s Childhood, although nicely surreal and a good character profile for Sakura, spent way too much time on the male characters obsessing over the possibility that she has had an illegitimate offspring. Way too much male privilege. Oh well. This makes it 25 of the 50 for me, so I’m gonna stop here for a while and watch other things.