Monday, October 31, 2005
Reavers and tartar sauce
I saw Serenity and The Weather Man over the weekend.
One is a rousing, sci-fi adventure story full of wit, heart and danger. The other is an American melodrama about the depressing quagmire that is raising a family while holding a job you don't want.
In both there is a great struggle for truth and a whole lot of pain.
Happy Halloween.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Unfamiliar Ceiling
"We beat the angel but I don't feel happy..."
It's so weird to see Evangelion on TV. Unedited no less. Nostalgia creeps over me, my chest aches with melancholy. But I've seen it so much I'm surprised I don't have the episode titles memorized yet. Hearing the dub again, Gendo's English voice as unforgiving-yet-menacing as his Japanese counterpart, brings me right back to the first time I saw the show. Freshman year of high school... Around the same time I played the equally angsty Final Fantasy VIII. Happy times indeed.
I told my Japanese pal, Hanae, to watch it tonight but first we went to get some dinner. "14 was not a good age to watch Eva," I tell her. To make the evening even more Japanese we had sushi. I am the biggest anachronism ever.
"Oh yeeaahhh... The main character's 14 isn't he?"
"Shinji? Yeah. Yeah, he is." And I continue to make sad faces at her inbetween bites of Spider Roll. This must've confused her a bit though I think my little performance was clear -- I was not a happy 14-year-old as Shinji is not a happy 14-year-old. But I did not come right out and say "OMG I WAS SO SAD." Somehow admitting that seems much sillier than groaning vaguely while dribbling soft-shell crab and soy sauce.
The early episodes of the show are fascinating. The pace is soooo slow and the camera takes its sweet time examining the pained expressions of the two main characters, Shinji and Misato. Especially intriguing: the show can go in any direction it wants at this point. Any direction at all. Who would've guessed its final, terrible and haunting destination? Watching it from the beginning now, again, it's even more painful to know where these characters (might or might not?!) end up.
"Good night, Shinji. Hang in there."
This marks the end of my 277th random Evangelion musing. AND NEXT WEEK: MORE FAN SERVICE!!!!!!!1111111111LOL
Saturday, October 22, 2005
You wanna piece of me, BOY?
A few important life lessons I gleaned the past couple of days:
- The next time I find myself to be one of the four males in a college course about ancient homosexual practices in foreign lands, I've got to withdraw immediately. That shit is not as fun as it sounds.
- I cannot tolerate spicy food anymore, or at least, spicy chicken wraps from strange Indian joins in New Brunswick. My stomach flips more than a mudskipper.
- Hair gel is a nice thing to have especially when I wake up and my hair decides to ignore all rules of physics and decency.
- Japanese is a ridiculous language to learn. Next time I try to unearth the secrets of a foreign language I better be born into that culture first.
- When my roommate is out for the night I better get to bed early or I'll have to endure 20 more minutes of gasping and squeaking than I would have liked trying to sleep later that night.
- Yes, Asian girls do have a distinct gasp and squeak. It ain't just in porn!
- Terran is a difficult race to play as when you want to rush your opponents. ZOMG LING RUSH
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Stand Alone
College is a fucking sore. Festering and never healing and getting worse and worse.
Yet today was one of the best days I had here in that I overslept and missed my only class - a class so obtuse and unapproachable unless you were born and raised in Japan or you are an asexual Japanfucker - worked out, showered, shaved, brought groceries, met a good friend during grocery shopping, walked back to the dorm with her laughing about how gay Batman Forever is, and got back in time to make dinner and watch two episodes of Lost and new episodes of South Park, Daily Show and Colbert Report. So, really, today had nothing to do with college and it was great.
It's the simple things.
Which is why tonight's episode of Lost finally broke through the thickheaded annoyingness of the current meandering season. The last few episodes got so caught up in setting up and setting up and foreshadowing that the metaphysics and bullshit of the plot thatthe characters wised up, yelled "Hey, fuck you, you plot!" and grabbed the reins from the plot and took over. But then, any episode of Lost that centers on Sun and her life is sure to be a joy, majestic string symphonies, sunsets and all.
Right now would be a fantastic time to be dropped on a mysterious, oft-dangerous island. To quit my job at the fast-food chicken joint or the hotel door. To longer be a student or an employee and just live, to only worry about a lost ring or what to do with the giant cache of food I just found.
But then I'd have to worry about where to plug in my PS2.
Because, goddammit, Shadow of the Colossus is out and I'm not playing it. Not yet anyway.
But soon.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Mask of the Butttasm
The Brooklyn Bridge and South Street Seaport from my window. Taken yesterday early, early, early morning. When I got space madness from staying up.
Same view, a few moments later.
Schmuck in a pineapple shirt.
