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2 Sep
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Posted by Musashi
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Somehow I was expecting September 11th pass without my having to blog anything about it, but I can’t help myself. This is too wonderful a story not to pass along.
A street sign in Manila shows an American businesswoman and Sept. 11 victim smiling down on a community whose transformation would have warmed her heart: Children frolicking on tidy brick alleys near brightly colored houses.
Unlike many victims of the 2001 attacks who are remembered mostly by their family and friends, Marie Rose Abad’s legacy lives on half-way around the world in a once-notorious Manila slum now turned into an orderly village that carries her name.
Her Philippine-born American husband had the community of about 50 one-story houses built in her memory in 2004 as a tribute to their 26 years of marriage and her unfulfilled desire to help the poor in the Philippines.
‘Dreaded area’ transformed in 9/11 victim’s memory
| Category: News | Tag: 9/11, good stuff, Philippines, sad |
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30 Jul
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Posted by Musashi
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Sakyo Komatsu, the science-fiction author responsible for the 1973 novel Japan Sinks (and inadvertently responsible for the resulting parody film The World Sinks Except Japan - which our very own AnaKhouri reviewed here…) has died at 80, from pneumonia. Komatsu also wrote the novel which served as the basis for the 1980 post-apocalyptic film Virus. Komatsu was also an accomplished screenwriter, with a number of television and film credits under his belt.
Komatsu has been referred to as the ‘King of Japanese Science Fiction.
| Category: News | Tag: everywhere sinks except japan, japan, literature, obituary, sad, Science Fiction |
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19 Apr
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Posted by Musashi
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A 23-year-old Chinese student in Toronto was chatting with a friend back home in China when an unidentified man broke into her apartment and brutally murdered her…while her friend sat helplessly and witnessed the crime via webcam. I think this just made my ‘Most Horrible News Story of the Year’ shortlist.
The friend she was talking to reportedly lives in China and was Liu’s boyfriend, according to posts on a Chinese-language chatroom, the Toronto Star reported. He reported seeing a struggle break out between the two before the man turned off Liu’s laptop and threw her cellphone on the floor.
Police say the laptop is now missing.
The friend tried to get help but the people he tried to contact were asleep, the Star reported. No one got his frantic message until 8:30 a.m. Saturday and it wasn’t until 10:30 a.m. that the landlord unlocked the apartment door, the Star reported.
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11 Mar
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Posted by Musashi
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5 Jan
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Posted by Musashi
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Just so you understand the chain of thought that led me to post this video – Mick Karn, bassist for 80′s synth-pop band Japan, died today…so I went on the usual YouTube clip safari, checking out loads of old Japan videos. Naturally, I started wondering what lead vocalist David Sylvian was up to these days, and lo and behold – I find out that his tune ‘For the Love of Life’ is used in the end-credits sequence for the Monster anime.
So there you go…
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1 Jan
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Posted by Musashi
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Holidays always fuck up my ability to get anything done, especially post at the site – various demands constantly pull me in all directions and unfortunately something’s always gotta give. Frankly I was going to stay away until after the weekend, but I just have to post this. It won’t stay bottled up two more days.
My good friend Shone Davis is dead.
Shone was more than a friend, really – if one can be said to have a brother in spirit, that was Shone Davis. My mom always said that most people will offer you kind words when life throws you a curveball, but true friends are there to put up with your shit.
That was Shone Davis.
Shone was the guy that would have your back even when you were wrong, who loved having a good time and being there when you weren’t. When I look back at my youth, it seems that most of my recollections somehow involve Shone.
Rampaging around a slamdance pit at a Circle Jerks show at Bogart’s.
Attending a Nether Eye show in some seedy basement, watching Shone dance his ass off wearing a Chuck-E-Cheese mascot head in 100-degree heat.
Driving to Cleveland for the first Lollapalooza tour in 1991.
Watching Mark Waid take a piss in the bathroom at the 1996 Chicago Comicon.
Punk shows, sitting around the basement playing Nintendo, watching John Woo flicks in his brother’s apartment in San Francisco, hanging out with my family in Los Angeles in ’97.
It’s the absolute fucking zenith of geek cliche, but I can’t help but quote Roy Batty from the end of Blade Runner: “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.”
I have a black Captain Harlock shirt in my closet, you know the one – the skull and crossbones. Shone gave that to me on my birthday fifteen years ago. It’s a little ratty now; the screenprint ink is cracked and and like my hair it’s starting to look a bit more light gray than black. It’s probably more than a little stretched out, too – time has a funny way of doing that to you.
I haven’t corresponded with Shone as much as I’d have liked the last few years. He relocated to the U.K. a while back, and though we chatted now and then via e-mail and Facebook time and distance took it’s inevitable toll.
I miss you, man. God damn, I miss you.
| Category: off-topic | Tag: obituary, sad, shone davis |
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25 Nov
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Posted by Musashi
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I’m running late getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner, so I don’t have time to say a lot – but I did want to note the untimely passing of musician Peter Christopherson, founding member of industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle and techno-occult experimentalists Coil. I’m particularly saddened by the latter, as Coil is now and truly gone…partner/collaborator John Balance preceded Christopherson to the grave in 2004.
Rest in peace, Sleazy, and thanks for some of the most beautiful atonality I’ve ever heard.
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8 Nov
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Posted by Musashi
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Famed anime producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, whose most well known effort was Space Battleship Yamato and it’s various spin-offs, drowned yesterday afternoon while taking a cruise on his research vessel Yamato. Anime News Network has full coverage of the incident here.
For whatever reason, I’ve taken quite an interest in Yamato these past few weeks. Like many anime fans that grew up in the 70′s, my first contact with the franchise was its’ U.S. run, the re-dubbed Star Blazers which I watched religiously every morning before heading off to grade-school. Even today when discussing Yamato I struggle to not identify characters by their Americanized names – but after having seen the original series I was pleased to see that the show’s essential themes – struggles against impossible odds, fighting for one’s home and loved-ones, and the power of the human spirit – were not lost in the translation.
The show’s animation seems crude by today’s standards but it stands the test of time in large part due to it’s spirit and purity of purpose. Even now, over thirty years later, watching the noble crew of the Yamato fling themselves headlong into to the cosmos to bring back alien technology to save Earth brings a tear to my eye.
And was there ever a better theme song than that which preceded each episode of Yamato? Compare this to the usual gibberish J-Pop that passes for theme songs these days.
Farewell Earth, the ship we leave in is
Space Battleship Yamato
Through space we travel toward far-off Iscandar
Fate upon our shoulders, we now begin our journey
“Surely we will return here”
We respond, smiling to the waving crowd
Leaving the galaxy, heading toward Iscandar
We face a great distance
Space Battleship Yamato
Farewell Earth, and the people we love
Space Battleship Yamato
We are charged with a mission to save the Earth
Fighting men, burning romance
Someone must undertake this
We are expected to do so
Leaving the galaxy, heading toward Iscandar
We face a great distance
Space Battleship Yamato
Rest in peace, Nishizaki-san, and thanks for a lifetime of wonderful memories.
| Category: News | Tag: Anime, japan, obituary, sad, space battleship yamato, yoshinobu nishizaki |
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1 Nov
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Posted by Musashi
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I know that film businesses outside the U.S. play a little fast-and-loose (compare Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong fare to the dung he’s produced Stateside sometime) but this is plain silly…
Watchman Eddie Cuizon tried to accost Filipino actor Kirk Abella late Saturday then shot him as the actor was directed to speed away on a motorcycle with a masked driver, said community police chief Alexis Relado of central Cebu city’s Parian district.
Cuizon, 52, told police he was sleeping and was woken up by a concerned citizen who reported the presence of armed men in his community.
He told police he saw two masked men on a motorcycle and approached them but they sped away and he stumbled as he tried to stop them, injuring his knee. He fired at Abella when the actor pulled out a gun, which turned out to be made of plastic, Relado said.
Many street killings in the Philippines, including those of political activists and journalists, have been perpetrated by motorcycle-riding gunmen.
Abella, 32, was acting in “Going Somewhere,” being filmed by British theatre and film director Alan Lyddiard in Cebu, Relado said.
You’d think that notifying the local badges about your upcoming drive-by-shooting scene would be prudent, but I guess that’s why I don’t make movies for a living.
| Category: News | Tag: accident, film, kirk abella, Philippines, sad, wtf |
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29 Oct
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Posted by Musashi
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Man – say what you want about Pokemon, I have to respect a cat who could churn out multiple seasons of that stuff…and three feature films to boot. Pokemon scribe Takeshi Shudo died yesterday at the age of 61 of a subarachnoid hemmorhage. Shudo also created Fairy Princess Minky Momo and contributed to GoShogun (known in the U.S. as the composite series Macron 1) and did a stint at Studio Ghibli.
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13 Oct
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Posted by Musashi
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I just learned that actor Ryo Ikebe died last week at the age of 92. Pale Flower is by far my favorite yakuza film, largely because of Ikebe’s portrayal of the nihilistic gangster Muraki. Ikebe left behind an impressive body of work that includes pivotal roles in a handful of sci-fi films (The War in Space and Gorath being the two most well-known) and Yasujiro Ozu’s Early Spring.
Pale Flower is available on Netflix Instant Watch – if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it…and Ikebe’s passing seems to be a fit excuse to check it out.
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7 Oct
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Posted by Musashi
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See – this is why I always cringe when people say monkeys are cute. They are not cute. They are vicious little bastards who want to kill us – and when they’re not thinking of ways to kill us, they’re masturbating in public or flinging feces at each other. Monkeys are bad.
A four-day-old girl has died after a wild monkey snatched the baby from her family’s living room in Malaysia, the Straits Times reported Thursday.
When the child’s 26-year-old mother left briefly to use the bathroom, the macaque monkey entered into the house, took the baby and fled to the roof, according to the newspaper. The girl’s badly bitten body was later found outside.
She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, the paper said.
“We frantically searched all over the house and saw her body covered in blood lying outside the house,” the baby’s grandfather, A. Valaythan, told the newspaper.
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4 Sep
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Posted by Musashi
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Okay – two things. I’m a lifelong Smiths fan (well, since the mid-80′s, which is probably a lifetime to most of you)…also, I can personally confirm that Morrissey is kind of a prick (went to see him in the early 90′s and he walked off-stage about two songs into his set because he got offended by something silly).
So, that said – what’s up this?
Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal rights advocate who last year abandoned the stage at the Coachella festival in California because of the smell of cooking meat, described the treatment of animals in China as “absolutely horrific”, referring to recent news stories about animals in Chinese circuses and zoos. He told interviewer Simon Armitage: “Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can’t help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies.”
I tend to compartmentalize an artists’ work from their personal failings – frankly if I didn’t, there would be precious little art left for me to enjoy. But still – a ‘subspecies’? That’s pretty wrong. Probably won’t keep me from enjoying my Smiths collection but there are some things I’d rather these people keep to themselves.
Ah well – just to make me feel better, here’s a video of The Smiths from before I realized what a douchebag Morrissey is.
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24 Aug
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Posted by Musashi
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I don’t have time to properly eulogize him, but I was shocked to learn via Twitter that anime director Satoshi Kon (Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika) died today at age 47.
Rest in peace, sir…
(Update: You can hear our sendoff to Satoshi Kon in Episode 8 of the Yellow Menace Podcast.)
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16 Aug
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Posted by Musashi
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Thai authorites are on the lookout for Lee Aldhouse, a British professional kickboxer who knifed an American tourist to death one week ago. Aldhouse, who seems to have quite the reputation as a violent douchebag, provoked a fight with 23-year-old ex-Marine Dashawn Longfellow at a Phuket bar before following Longfellow back to his hotel and stabbing him to death.
Aldhouse, who trained in Thai kickboxing or Muay Thai, was known for “getting drunk and picking fights and bragging that he’s invincible,” Anukul told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Authorities believe Aldhouse is still in Phuket, NBC News reported, and they are working with Immigration officials to intercept him if he attempts to leave from Phuket or Bangkok airports. So far, there is no record of him leaving Phuket via the airport.
According to NBC News, police have set up checkpoints in and out of Phuket and local police have been briefed about Aldhouse in case he attempts to escape by land. There is only one bridge leading off the island.
A man who identified himself as a manager at the Yanui Paradise Resort declined to disclose details, saying he was only speaking to the U.S. Embassy. The embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.
Longfellow had served in the Marines and was a machine gunner for the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Matt Gronbach, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, who was in the same unit with Longfellow, said.
| Category: News | Tag: crime, douchebags, kickboxing, sad, thailand |
