Bartender turned me into an alcoholic.

They knowingly conceived this project to exploit the finely romantic sensibilities of dreaming youth, lost youth, and youth being lost. It seemed, and now undeniably is, so natural, so beautiful, to forge one's courage, drown one's failures, or relive one's past through the lens of a cocktail. The bottles spin away into the horizon, endless labels of industrially distilled spirits, each containing glimpses of a dream. The strangely earnest jazz trickles past, a tributary to the river of sentimentality. And Ryuu creates his Glass of the Gods for the evening, and stricken with a desperate need to savor the same flavors and feelings, we rush out to buy gin and Drambuie and champagne and tonic water.

Well, we're not that desperate. I did end up having to try my friend's "Jack Rose", which he made by adding apple cider (or was it apple juice?) to a bottom-shelf brandy, together with some citrus component that wasn't a lime. Suffice it to say, it didn't really work. For my part, I bought a bottle of gin, which I gradually figured out how to drink. After that came a bottle of (lousy) tequila, and then a bottle of (awesome) rye. Now I think we have ten bottles of whiskey in the house.

I can't completely put the blame on Bartender for my alcoholism. Recent years have seen resurgence of cocktail culture in the United States, and perhaps the madness has made it to Japan. There are no melodramatic TV shows in the US about cocktails, though. Just articles and columns in the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. And some great books.

On your personal road to developing an emotional dependence on alcohol, I advise not buying the liquors featured in Bartender's product placement spotlight. Spend a bit more to get top-shelf liquors. Your cirrhosis will be far more pleasant to develop. Now excuse me while I deal with all this acetaldehyde.

Manhattan
2 oz Rye Whiskey
1/2 oz Red Vermouth
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
Assemble ingredients in mixing glass with ice. Stir a good bit, then strain into other glass of choice. I drink everything out of a "Scotch glass".



(Note to the PC police: alcoholism is a serious problem. Professional help is advised.)

Sign me up

Sign me up for the Kyou Fanboy Association. :3

Progress

So I finally finished a few series from summer 2007. Oh, sorry, Dennou Coil actually dates from spring 2007. From the same season... haven't finished Hitohira... I'll probably never watch Saiunkoku... Romeo x Juliet someday I guess... As for spring 2007, I got through Doujin Work. Still got Higurashi, Zero no Tsukaima S2, Baccano!... sigh.

Well, Doujin Work was pretty fun, through pretty trashy in terms of animation quality. (Well, there weren't any cabbages, at least.) It makes me want to check out the manga, which is probably made of LOL.

Dennou Coil was downright incredible. Definitely one for the history books. I would have liked to have seen more plot, rather than the extended illegal-exploring lull in the middle of the series, but that's just a minor quibble. If only American "kid's shows" could mine such deep territory; sorry, Jonny Quest can't touch this. Go watch this if you haven't already.

I finished Asatte no Houkou, which has got to date from 2006. It was quite riveting for the last few episodes; channeling the thoughtful approach of historical Japanese cinema (think Ozu), while keeping a character of its own. Kudos to J.C Staff for another animation job well done.

Currently working on: Kimikiss, CLANNAD, Hidamari Sketch, (and maybe finally get through) Noir. All of which I heartily recommend.

Tainaka Sachi

I placed an order at YesAsia for a bunch of stuff. Enough stuff that I was debating whether to add in Tainaka Sachi's latest album, Love is.... If you'll recall, タイナカサチ　burst upon the scene with the OP to Fate/stay Night, "disillusion". Strangely enough, that song was produced in a way that takes the edge, the distinctive cry out of her voice. I guess they were going for a different effect, with the sweeping violin harmonic line and the, uh, soprano solo.

I was much more impressed by the "B-side" to the single, 忘れかけていたのかな (Wasurekaketeita no kana). It's a quiet song that shows the artist's ability to write musically sophisticated songs, and the brilliant vocal ability to pull them off. Curiously, this song hasn't made it into either of her albums, although it's one of my favorites.

Back to Love is.... Itoshii Hito he is a song where she's really got the cry going on. Seriously, her voice gives me chills. The music video is lacking something, though.

Lipstick is a song which I found somewhat too obnoxious at first, but I've warmed up to it. It's nice that there's real brass in this song, though it seems to be multitracked. With regards to the PV, I can attest that it's really hard to groove while playing a trumpet, unless you have extensive marching or ska band experience. I'm also a bit surprised that I can't find a translation for this song online. Makes me want to step up and do it, but my skills are probably far too rudimentary.

Well, anyway, I ended up not ordering the album. Maybe next month, who knows.

Consumerism

So I'm about to plunge deeper into this subculture, by putting lots of money into it. It will be a downward, vicious cycle of spending and obtaining; I can feel it. Though, arguably I started this behavior sometime ago. I was at Kinokuniya today and ended up buying 9 volumes of manga. That I am unable to read, mostly. They join the rest of my manga in my bookcase, which has been growing at an exponentially increasing rate as of late.

But, buying "raw" manga doesn't worry me that much. I feel a certain responsibility to buy the series that stand out, after having read so many scanlations. In my book, buying J-pop is more worrisome. After all, I'm not so big a fan of pop music in general. There are a few standout artists that I feel compelled to support, though admittedly I view J-pop through the limiting lens of anime openings and endings. I think what makes buying J-pop more worrisome is that I have to import it. And it's $30 an album, or $12 for a single. That level of pricing gives me pause. Still, I've filled my shopping cart and am waiting for a sense of finality -- some comparison shopping shows that yesasia doesn't carry some of my items. I guess I'll sit on this basket for one more day. Or not...

The most serious threat to my wallet and my ego, however, are figures. I posted a picture of the older version of this Haruhi some time back. I think I'm going to get it now. Hopefully the molds aren't shot.

I wouldn't be thinking seriously of getting figures if it wasn't for good ol' Heisei Democracy. I have a serious itch to get that Kagami, even at $40ish. They're definitely sucking the fanbase dry on this figure -- the design is nowhere near as complex as other figures at this price point. So, uh, somehow that makes me think that getting the Kagami + Tsukasa set is a good idea. Seriously. I'm walking a fine line between semi-restraint and full-blown goods fiending. After the figures come square pillows, and then long ones. (I don't know Polyphonica, actually, just couldn't find the Hinagiku dakimakura on this site. There seems to be a towel though. :3)

anime on bossa = wtf

I saw [Iwao Junko - Anime on Bossa] at the strangely-titled Akibanana, and decided to check it out. It's pretty weird, as expected. That's not to say that there's not good talent involved: the musicians have impressive chops, and Iwao Junko does something of an Astrud Gilberto impression. As a card-carrying member of the Jazz Police, however, I sense some faults in this album, on a deep, ideological level. First, these are anime songs (that I don't know, mostly), so they sound a bit funny (or a lot funny) when set against that swaying bossa nova beat. Second, a few of the tracks aren't bossa nova; they're that corny-earnest weird Japanese jazz.

Corny-earnest jazz is bad. It's insidiously bad. I can't really explain, it just twists me painfully inside. I've heard it in places like 99 Ranch, a CD full of "I'm playing with strategically added grace notes from a half step below, so it must be cool and jazzy now" piano schlock. So please stop making this stuff. Thanks in advance.

[This post was rescued from the drafts dustbin in May 2009, and the original link is dead.]

Aagh

I've been going a little crazy these past few days trying to find out when the 10th Haruhi novel is coming out. So far, no hard date. There's some news from last summer about it being delayed. This thing (described as a shareholder report by Babelfish) shows 涼宮ハルヒの驚愕 due sometime this month. However, given that there's been no massive ad campaign, it can't be arriving anytime soon.

I kind of feel that Tanigawa-sensei has written himself into a hole with the plot direction in #9. From past author's notes, Tanigawa-sensei gives the impression that he spends a lot of time in plotting and planning. Since #10 is supposed to be the conclusion of the arc started in #9, the only thing that could be holding it back so long is a massive replumbing job. At least that's my hope. #9 gets into dangerous territory, in that it focuses the overarching plot, introducing new characters and potentially expanding the SOS-dan. In previous novels we've spent a lot of time delving into things involving Yuki and Mikuru, and not so much the Haruhi=God supposition. By extension, we've yet to see much of Koizumi's secrets. I doubt this forthcoming novel will blow the whole thing wide open, but hopefully it'll answer more questions than it raises, without sinking the enterprise.