2020.05.04 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 36

Remember the Galaxy Rangers? That was the best show…

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow!

Today in “get some better problems, Joey” I ordered the first 5 volumes of PARASYTE by Hitoshi Iwaaki but only volumes 1, 4 and 5 have arrived. I wanna reeeeeeeeeeeead. Now I’m stuck reading one of the other 7,000,000 unread books and comics in this house.

It’s now been long enough that I need to clean up my home office area. Weird how that happened… I’ve got stacks of papers, manga, sound equipment, synthesizers, mixers, computer equipment, office supplies etc etc and they’re now being joined by anime funko pops. Once the Gundams start nesting you know Spring has arrived.

Currently Playing: The Sorority – Pledge

Currently Reading: 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Jules Verne

2020.05.01 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 35

Everything is on fire and I hurt my neck and wrist in a semi-related, cushion-punching incident.

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

Counting down the seconds until I can leave this chair and go lie down. It’s been a week, ladies and gentlemen! This is tough all over, I know, but this is my blog so I’m gonna whine on it…

I started another book about Miyazaki: MIYAZAKIWORLD by Susan Napier. So far it’s great, much more the type of book I was looking for when I read the Helen McCarthy one. That book was fine, but was clearly written at a time where Miyazaki had to be explained to people. This one came out post-WIND RISES so has no need to bury the lede and can get right into the stuff I want instead of recapping movies I’ve seen 35 times each. In the last 8 days I’ve watched 8 of the 11 Miyazaki features. By tonight that number will be 9. I haven’t rewatched Totoro on this journey yet, but I’ve seen that movie roughly monthly since I had children (often weekly and sometimes daily) so it’s less pressing for me. The other one I haven’t rewatched recently is Castle of Cagliostro, mostly because it’s the only one I haven’t got on blu ray. I had a dvd once upon a time, but I think I foolishly parted with it in the great “oh, shit my wife is pregnant I gotta sell some of this shit and buy furniture” purge of 2012. The second I can get the blu for a reasonable sum I will correct this error.

Currently Playing: ZANDAR ZAN – “HDK 18 † Thug life in Tsargol”

Currently Reading: MIYAZAKIWORLD, Susan Napier

2020.04.30 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 34

Watched the original OP for One Piece 5 times this morning with one of the tiny anarchists who live in my house. We’re cool guys with cool interests.

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

For the last week and change I’ve been rewatching all Miyazaki’s films. So far I’ve done Nausicaa, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky and Howl’s Moving Castle. Today is Kiki’s Delivery Service and tomorrow will probably be Porco Rosso. I really need to get a bluray of Castle of Cagliostro as I cannot for the life of me figure out where the hell I put my old DVD copy.

Considering wearing a big red bow on my head like Kiki from KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE. I can see no downside to this and expect it would only improve my life. Not really a cat guy, but I’d get one if he had the voice of Phil Hartman (yes, I like to watch the dubs. Shut up).

Tomorrow, bandcamp is doing another one of their days where they waive their share of the profits of all sales. Going to spend some time trawling through the wishlist and seeing about an order.

Currently Playing: GNOLL – “HDK 38 † Zargo’s Lords”

Currently Reading: HOUSE OF MANY WAYS, Diana Wynne Jones

2020.04.29 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 33

From my cold basement, I type at thee…

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

I’m watching some wrestling in preparation for a new project. There is a real shortage of people talking about wrestling on podcasts so I am taking matters into my own hands. More details to come probably next week.

Speaking of pummeling people, there’ a new Streets of Rage game out tomorrow. I am not really sure what, if anything, I want or expect out of a new Streets of Rage game, but the bits and pieces I’ve seen in some streams today make me at least curious to check it out. The “beat-em-up” is really a genre that has fallen by the wayside in the last… well 25 years. There have been cool things here and there, but they mostly feel like they trade mainly on nostalgia? and I’m not sure that’s enough. The beat-em-up bundle that Capcom put out a while back was pretty rad, playing Metal Warriors for the first time was a real joy and made me want a new Mech beat-em-up… I guess that’s what I want in a new beat-em-up: Giant Robots.

Currently Playing: Yuzo Kushiro – “Streets of Rage 2 Soundtrack”
Currently Reading: THE HOUSE OF MANY WAYS, Diana Wynne Jones

2020.04.28 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 32

I’m gonna get killed in an avalanche of books/comics/manga as I keep piling them higher on this desk down here, and that’s how I’ve ALWAYS wanted to go out.

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

Someone talk me out of buying a Gigantor Tetsujin 28 Vinyl figure! HURRY. I like his little pointy nose and those wrist band thingies. There is also a funko pop figure, at the best of times Funko pops don’t really look great? but this one in particular is annoying me.

Like… Gigantor’s huge body and tiny head are like… that’s the whole iconic THING about Gigantor… Look at this stupid thing!

Now I want a whole shelf of cool robots from movies and animation… The guardian robots from Castle in the Sky, the NES R.O.B., Johnny 5, Gigantor, Astro Boy, Android 13…. Yeah… Robots are rad.

Currently Playing: Aesop Rock – “Music From Freedom Finger”

Currently Reading: HOUSE OF MANY WAYS, Diana Wynne Jones

2020.04.27 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 31

Yeah, I’ve been thinkin’ about gettin’ an ottoman.

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

I spent some time trying to find a youtube video of a kid eating a radish because they thought it was an apple. I didn’t find it yet, but I did see a bunch of kids eating onions like apples. These kids are just going to town on these onions no matter how much it hurts their eyes or makes them cough… they are going to do okay in life. They’re gonna be ready. Good for you, kids.

For some reason searching for baby eats radish also yielded a Dragon Ball Z clip of Bulma trying to punch Goku? I like to think YouTube is just worried I might get bored after 2 or 3 baby videos and is trying to look out for me. Thanks, YouTube. Now stop giving white supremacists a platform!

Currently Playing: Phish – “Sigma Oasis”
Currently Reading: CASTLE IN THE AIR, Diana Wynne Jones

Read Icculus Goes Bananas

Finished 1 book and 3 mangas this week:

CRYING FREEMAN, VOL. 1, Kazuo Koike & Ryoichi Ikegami
PARASYTE, VOL. 1, Hitoshi Iwaaki
THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM: PERFECT EDITION VOL. 1, Kazuo Umezz
HAYAO MIYAZAKI: MASTER OF JAPANESE ANIMATION, Helen McCarthy

The book about Miyazaki was interesting, but also very strange and dated. It came out after Princess Mononoke. There is a lot of talk in it about whether Miyazaki could possibly repeat the success of that film with his next project which little was known of. The next project would turn out to be SPIRITED AWAY, which is, in my opinion, one of the three greatest films ever made.

The other thing that was weird about the book was how much of it was dedicated to just detailing the full plots of each film. I can see that being something you’d want to have at the time when these movies were not easily (or in many cases even remotely) accessible, but in 2020 I don’t need to read a 20 page synopsis of My Neighbor Totoro because I’ve seen it no less than 100 times.

Still, a fun enough little time capsule.

2020.04.24 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 30

Rewatched Hayao Miyazaki’s CASTLE IN THE SKY last night for the umpteenth time. Still a masterpiece.

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

I started watching season 5 of Community yesterday. I was an enormous fan of the first 3 seasons of Community. It was a perfect blend of the kind of absurd/surrealist stuff I like with a lot of great pop-culture parody/reference that I also am a sucker for. Community did this blend better than most other shows and the cast was funny and charming. I quit watching in season 4 when they fired Dan Harmon, the creator. I have no idea if it’s good (though I suspect it’s “fine” but not quite the same) because I didn’t feel right about watching it after he was fired. They brought him back for season 5 and 6 but by then I was out of the habit of watching it (and most other sitcoms come to think of it) so I never saw them.

The whole series was recently added to Netflix and friends have been talking about it so I put on the REPilot, season 5 premiere… It’s really funny. I’ll probably watch the rest. I’m glad. I don’t know how long it’ll take me to watch it all, lately I have barely watched ANY live-action television, but who knows. That’s the thing about having a defective brain, you never know where it’ll spin you next.

OH, I should probably mention the new episode of my podcast went out this morning. You can listen to it at http://www.brideofthecreature.com

Currently Playing: A wrestling podcast reviewing old episodes of RAW and NITRO, don’t worry about it.
Currently Reading: Trying to finish up a few things I’m most of the way through

2020.04.23 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 29

Went to sleep at 9:15 last night and I feel positively… ENERGIZED. Let’s see how long before I feel like shit again.

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

I read Murakami’s book about running (and writing) WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING and suddenly feel like I want to start running? I’m in… poor physical condition? My knees and back are… not good? Yet, I still think running might be a thing I’d like to try to get into? My saying this here is sort of a way to force my hand a little. Public declarations of intent (even wishy-washy ones like this) are more likely to cause me to act than just telling the bride my plans. I’ve long since gotten used to disappointing her so it’s less of a motivating factor than it could be.

Watching archival Phish and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead concerts on youtube has been a great source of background music the last few days. JRAD is something of a new discovery for me. I have been aware of Joe Russo and the band itself but hadn’t listened to them until recently. Some really great playing on these renditions of the Grateful Dead songs I know so well. There’s a ton of free concert footage on the nugs.net youtube channel.

Currently Playing: Joe Hisaishi – “Laputa: Castle in the Sky Original Score”
Currently Reading: HAYAO MIYAZAKI: MASTER OF JAPANESE ANIMATION, Helen McCarthy

2020.04.22 Dispatches From the Wasteland – Entry 28

Is it considered bad parenting to lock a couple tiny anarchists who live in your house in a garden shed for a day or two? Asking for… myself an the bride.

Greetings from my hovel on the shores of the Bow.

Up to about 30 different April 2020 Manga Haul youtube videos now… this is what I’ve become. I have thousands of comics in this house I could read and I’m just watching videos of strangers opening boxes containing the same books over and over again for hours.

To be fair (tobefaaaaaaaiirrrrrrr) I have actually read some comics this week, but I’ll save that for a Read Icculus on friday.

aaaaaaaaaaand I got nothing. See you tomorrow.

Currently Playing: bvdub – “The Times the World Lied”

Currently Reading: HAYAO MIYAZAKI: MASTER OF JAPANESE ANIMATION, Helen McCarthy