[quote="Digitalguardian"]Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai. Just kidding. Turns out that translates to There’s No Way I’m in Love with My Sister. She's into porn, but not just any porn; brother/sister porn, but guys shes not actually into her brother, that would be weird and she wouldn't be "pure" anymore. Continue being awesome Japan!
Actually that translates loosely into " I cant believe how cute my sister is", But yes the show is horrible.

I am watching IRON MAN!!! (the anime).

Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai.
Pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4fn72uGAW0 dig the drum rolls in the background of this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuCtL5SrW94
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nLiprGIvjw

[quote="Digitalguardian"]Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai. Just kidding. Turns out that translates to There’s No Way I’m in Love with My Sister. She's into porn, but not just any porn; brother/sister porn, but guys shes not actually into her brother, that would be weird and she wouldn't be "pure" anymore. Continue being awesome Japan!
So I actually watched the first episode. There is a dark undertone to this show. All of the above applies but after her brother finds out her secret she comes into his room while he's sleeping and slaps him awake. She does this because she wants him to come to her room to see if he'll accept her- I mean accept her hobby. Also she's on top of him when she does this, but don't ask me why. By the way, it gets worse. At the end of the episode it looks like she's trying to train him by making him play through her collection of hentai games.

Thunderstruck/Ghostbusters mashup - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiH1wNmZTII

[quote="BrokenMagnum"]Ghost Dog: the Way of the Samurai.
Pretty good.

Seriously? I watched Ghost Dog for free, and I think it is probably one of the worst movies I've seen out of the 90s. Never before have I seen a movie whose reach so far exceeded its grasp. It's been a long time, but I didn't think it was even funny bad. I sort of thought it was a clumsy terrible attempt to draw comparisons between gangsta and samurai culture, resulting in an interminable wreck. Last weekend, I attempted to watch the Tekken movie while drunk, and had to stop 1/3rd of the way through. I would gladly attempt that one again, sober, rather than watch Ghost Dog. Ghost Dog was probably the worst use of Forrest Whitaker, even including Bloodsport-- the slow motion scene of him flailing around on a rooftop with a katana attempting not to stumble over his gut was about as surreal as it gets.

[quote="HeartOfMadness"]
Thank you! I don't think I've ever encountered anyone else who agrees with me that Ghost Dog was fucking terrible. For some reason, everyone else that I know who saw it loved it, and I really can't understand why.

Yeah, that movie's reception is far more positive than I can explain.

Ronin and Le Samourai also feature tenuous similes with assassins and Japanese warrior culture, but the difference is that those movies are a lot better.

It's also one of my pet peeves when people bring up the popular notion of "bushido" as it's understood by Western fanboys like the one that made Ghost Dog, or even the Japanese themselves. A prevailing theory among many American scholars posits that the invention of Bushido as the Japanese warrior spirit was a revisionist invention of the 20th century in support of Japanese exceptionalism and the growing nationalism of the time. It's not an accident that "Hagakure," the book of the samurai, was written by a largely irrelevant warrior in retirement, and completely ignored until someone dug it up in 1930 to support the national agenda. The wiki article on bushido is pretty sad because it's people who have citations and bibliographies of sources getting shouted down by fans citing Naruto and crap like Ghost Dog. Ghost Dog would be great if it were an indictment of both bushido and inner city thug notions of honor as mostly invented ideals, but it's a really lame homage to a great French noir film.

I've been watching Regular Show. It's pretty funny.

Also, this season of Mad Men has been amazing. Season finale is this Sunday.

[quote="Spankminister"][quote="HeartOfMadness"]
Thank you! I don't think I've ever encountered anyone else who agrees with me that Ghost Dog was fucking terrible. For some reason, everyone else that I know who saw it loved it, and I really can't understand why.

Yeah, that movie's reception is far more positive than I can explain.

Ronin and Le Samourai also feature tenuous similes with assassins and Japanese warrior culture, but the difference is that those movies are a lot better.
I didn't like Ronin much, either, but I may need to reappraise it, because I wasn't really in the mood for something of that sort when I watched it. (Also, I'm not a fan of car chases, so I didn't really care about the supposed "Best car chase ever!" in Ronin.) That said, it was still way better than Ghost Dog; I didn't actively resent Ronin for taking two hours of my life. I really need to see Le Samourai, though.

[quote="Spankminister"]Ghost Dog would be great if it were an indictment of both bushido and inner city thug notions of honor as mostly invented ideals
See, that sounds like a really good movie to me. Why can't Jim Jarmusch have made that instead?

(The answer, I'm sure, is because Jim Jarmusch sucks.)

[quote="karaokeninja"]You'd probably dig Musashi: Dream of the Last Samurai, the movie Oshii wrote but didn't direct. It is all about debunking the popular myth of the samurai in general and Musashi in particular.
I've wanted to see this ever since I heard the DAPDX episode on it, but I guess it's not on DVD yet.

Watched a movie called Bad Girls From Mars on hulu today. It's a comedy that purposely tries to be an ed wood film (with multiple references to him in the movie). I did enjoy it, but I don't know how I feel about people making an intentionally bad movie.

[quote="karaokeninja"]You'd probably dig Musashi: Dream of the Last Samurai, the movie Oshii wrote but didn't direct. It is all about debunking the popular myth of the samurai in general and Musashi in particular.

I don't think Oshii is alone in that-- as much as Musashi is idealized in period fiction, there's plenty of historical rebuttals to the legendary image of Musashi, not to mention the fact that plenty of Japanese don't like him because he doesn't really fit the Bushido model. Sasaki Kojirou is probably more culturally beloved as the beautiful aesthetic young prodigy cut down in his prime compared to the boorish self-promoter Musashi. The island where the famous duel happened is called Ganryujima, not Musashijima.

Also, there's a difference between bushido revisionism and romanticism. Eiji Yoshikawa's novel featuring Musashi as the sort of wandering warrior duelist archetype that would give rise to heroes like Street Fighter's Ryu is a rugged individualist on a Zen-like quest of self-improvement. Things like Chushingura and Hagakure are completely about losing oneself in things like loyalty, and fetishize dying in service of a daimyo. I think saying "Musashi was a regular guy in light of X, Y, and Z" is easier and less political than to try and topple the entire institution of bushido as a house of cards.

Yeah, an American I knew who went to Japan told me he found that to be the case with people he'd talked to, as well as the fact that Sasaki Kojiro's memorial is much larger than Musashi's.

You're in for a good ride. I went through Dexter this past summer and got donewatching season 4 a couple of weeks ago. I think season 2 is the best one followed by season 4. I wish I could make Doakes' "I'm watching you motherfucker" my alarm clock ring.


I saw The Social Network today. It was OK

Fincher is awesome (besides that little mistep of Benjamin Button) and from a directorial standpoint I enjoyed it a lot. I just can't get over how a lot of the scenes are just exaggerations and made up stories that Sorkin wrote. Im sure that is true for most biographical and historical films, but having Facebook be so recent I couldn't suspend my disbelief and that probably lessened my feelings toward the film. If he would have wrote a film based on or inspired by Facebook, I'm sure this would have been my favorite movie of the year.

I have to say the Eisenberg and the guy who played the twins did a fantastic job. And with this movie, Im ready to consider Justin Timberlake to actually be an actor.

Listening to Sufjan Steven's new album, The Age of Adz.
His new style of composition and heavy use of weird electronic tinkering put me off at first, but after a while I listened to it from start to finish, getting myself out of the usual iPod track list comfort zone. I gotta say, there are alot of great moments on the record. The melodies are definitely there amongst all the synthesizer and keyboard noise; it just took me a bit to appreciate them since I'm so in love with his typical catchy lily-livered Folk/Orchestral music filled with constantly repeating ostinatos.

It's definitely nothing compared to Come On Feel The Illinoise or Michigan, but the beauty is still here, separated by bombastic tunes.
The last 25 minute epic song, Impossible Soul is a stretch, but it's worth it just to get to the heart wrenching last couple of minutes.

Also, his voice is still beautiful.

[quote="xenomouse"] [...] I've listened to a few songs from The Age of Adz, and I'm still on the bubble about it.
I'm giving the album its first go-through right now, and I'm so, so confused. I feel like this is going to grow on me, but nothing's certain.

Been listening to a lot of Hip-Hop including Lil' Wayne mixtapes (yes I know...he's a completely despicable person), Common's first two albums, and pretty much all of Kanye West. I gotta say, even though he's a douche bag and he does stupid things here and there, I have to respect his abilities not only as rapper but as a producer. And whether you love or hate his soul-based samples, song-crafting techniques, or his large inflated head, you got to respect his unmitigated confidence, his open-mindedness on key issues, and his refusal to enter the game with shitty gangsta rap that predominated the first half of this decade. He sort of helped initiate that whole paradigm shift and I'm extremely thankful for that.

He singled himself out to me by acting a fool at different award ceremonies. It sort of puts me off when a guy makes real life claims of how they should deserve an award over someone else, as if they didn't work as hard as him. It's a good thing to be humble in the real world outside of a rap song.

But I guess you're right. I think it's because I have a tendency to put West on higher moral pedestal, expecting more of him when in reality he's just like any other rapper who toots their own horn constantly.

Red is a great movie, way way WAY better at old guys fuck shit up than The Expendables

Raw Deal, pretty good if a typical Arnold action movie.

BTTF 2&3 marathon. 2 is as lame as I remember, but 3 is less lame.

I just watched the Halloween episode from season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it reminded me how much I enjoyed that show. It makes me want to watched the series again.

Edit: I apparently liked it so much that I posted it twice.

[quote="kaazuwulf"]Is that the one where everyone becomes what they dress up as?
Yup.

watched this Swedish movie called Let the Right One In. Sort of like True Blood or Twilight, but add a kid dealing with the fact this girl he likes goes around murdering people to live.

The remake seems to have gotten good reviews, I'll most likely rent it when it comes out.

Also, the scene when oskar gets held under in the pool was great. CG cats, less so.