Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

When I was nine, I saw a classified ad about "comics for sale." The address was in the same apartment development, so I went over to check this out. I was thinking this would be a cheap way to feed my addiction. Not so. At the time the price of a new comic was 12 cents. This kid (with his dad, natch) pulls out a couple of titles from a box where they were stored and starts quote prices in the range of five and ten bucks. My eyes glazed. I realized I had come to the wrong place. The plastic bags should have been a dead giveaway. I'm not a collector. I don't have file cabinets full of originals encased in archival sleeves. Collectors are interested in the object: the original magazine. For me it's about the content: the drawings, the stories. I'm not a purist, anthologies and reprints are just fine - better in some ways than originals, since I've always liked to pore over the pages, re-reading the balloons, studying the drawings. Brittle newsprint in plasti...

Interesting read on 10 reasons why high definition DVD formats have already failed . Anyway, that's what I told my kids when they clamored for a PS3.

Microsoft announced Bill Gates is going to transition out of his day-to day role at Microsoft to spend more time focusing on his Foundation efforts. The Slashdot crowd (who I love) alternately sneered and cheered . Me, I thought it was just fine. I mean, geez...the guy's been doing the Microsoft thing for (what has it been?) 30 years? He's probably ready to pack it it, buy himself a dual boot MacBook, and enjoy himself and his family for a while. In the meantime, he's going to give a shitload of money away to help improve life for a lot of people. Some have compared him to the Robber Barons of the 19th century who, in their old age turned philanthropist. Who cares? Andrew Carnegie sure did start a bunch of libraries which are still serving communities. Steve Ballmer, now HE'S probably pissed! Have fun, Bill!

The Dallas Morning News gave a pretty good (not too stupid) review of last week-end's A-Kon 17. It appears in the Wednesday, June 14 edition of the Guide and can also be seen online .

Went to my 2nd and last day of A-Kon yesterday with Ed and his buddy (work-related crap keeps me from returning today, but that's a rant I care not to make). Arrived just in time for lunch then plunged back into the madness. One thing that has always struck me about A-Kon (and AnimeFest as well) has been the diversity of the attendees: young and old, straight and gay, white, black, yellow, brown (not to mention a fair amount of green, blue and purple). Anime/Manga culture has spread to a wide cross-section of America. Very cool. Caught some good video (as well as some bad). Outstanding was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya , not yet available in the US. It is practically a cult religion in Japan I gather. See the separate post for more info. Searching on YouTube will pull up some fan-subtitled episodes. Also amusing was Hare and Guu , a frisky and colorful comedy, and Desert Punk , a comedic scifi adventure series. Both are available in the US. I bought (on Ed's recommendati...

Finished with A-Kon, day two (see separate post) and probably the coolest thing I saw was 4 episodes of an anime called The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi , based on the Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu novels by Nagaru Tanigawa . It began screening in Japan this spring and (I gather) has practically become a state religion known as Haruhi-ism. The opening episode was one of the cleverest, goofiest things I'd seen in a long time: a fan film made by the characters in the anime. The second episode then started before the first episode, and introduces the characters for the first (second?) time. The Anime News Network describes it thusly: "On the first day of high school a beautiful girl named Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself as having "no interest in ordinary humans". She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon a boy who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. Commenting on Haruhi...

Back home after the first day of A-Kon 17 (anime convention) in downtown Dallas. Initial impression: it is a pain in the ass to park in Dallas. This was aggravated by the fact a city-sponsored Arts Celebration was going on in the vicinity of the Dallas Museum of Art several blocks away. Hotel parking (A-Kon was at Adam's Mark) was full by the time we made the drive over around 12:30, as were all the paid parking lots around the hotel. "No event parking" -- that meant us. We ended up finding a garage about 3 blocks away, which ended up not being all that bad, since it meant we had covered parking. Then we faced our next hurtle: getting registered. The pre-registration process was sorely out of wack, with loooong lines (sort of defeating the purpose of pre-registering), which the A-Kon security people tried to reorganize a couple of times as we waited in line, causing everybody's places to become somewhat confused. By the time we showed up, the crowd had grown a bit cra...