come explore the future with me

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

Straight from the backalleys of Bangkok and into my hands came this little direct2video, b-grade SF gem. A film that IMDB says was first released in Kazakhstan!

Echelon Conspiracy is the tale of an AI, the NSA’s Echelon supercomputer, that remote controls several foolish humans so that it can affect it’s escape into a vacant server-farm and upgrade itself.

It tricks the humans by using it’s knowledge of everything! to give them instant financial reward, thus training them to do it’s bidding, then killing them off when they’ve accomplish their part in it’s scheme.

The main character receives a mysterious, advanced phone in a delivery to his hotel. Via anonymous text messages he receives his instructions.

Fly to Prague, it says.. richs awaits you there! So off he goes.

It then leads him around by the nose in a casino, telling him how much to bet, where and exactly when.

His ridiculous success immediately attracts the attention of the casino security; enter Edward Burns to do his best ex-FBI agent, now lone wolf. And Ving Rhames, his ex-partner, who shows up to take all the glory.

But the real fun is watching this main character (a horrible, forgettable actor, who clearly failed at the Kenau Reeves school of ‘acting’) stumble around, increasingly dependant on his SMSed instructions, often just standing their like an un-attended video game character. Because that’s how the AI controls him, that’s the great inversion, reality as one big game, humans being the physical agents of an all-seeing, all-knowing entity.

This had me once more thinking about the likelihood of a Twitter-based serial killer, or terrorist even, emerging. Just how easy is it to train people to obey text messages they receive, and how much damage could be done that way? Start by giving them financial rewards, then make the tasks more obscure. Two or three remote-control drones and mayhem could ensue. Definitely something to watch out for!

Of course in the end, it’s the human that teaches the AI a lesson that saves the world from becoming the ultimate surveillance state.

But the film’s not done there, because the ace Russian hacker turns out to be an upstanding Russian KGB/FSB agent, working to save the world from the crazy Americans and their worship of all things technological and advanced. How subversive; fancy the US being schooled by their ColdWar-era enemies!

Also, special mention goes to the love interest, the clear best on field, played by Tamara Feldman. Watching her kick ass was a thing to behold.

This film punches well above it’s weight, and is ten times better than the Hollywood blockbuster schlock I’ve been subjected to (and disappointed by) of late. A worthy addition to the future-present cyberpunk cannon.

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

The fourth and final installment, of this run at least, of the Herald-Sun Geek Panel went to print today.

We had quite the interesting live-chat session; part Bay bashing, part ‘wtf was a robot humping Megan Fox’s leg for, and why did she like it so much’, and an earnest troll convinced there were massive religious subtexts to the film that we were missing.

This review was pretty short and sweet, mostly because I was on flu meds for the film, and we had a only a few hours between seeing it and submitting our reviews. Still, they cut out a bit, so once more, here’s the un-cut version:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a Michael Bay movie, so you expect it to be filled with slow-mo explosions, people walking away in slow-mo from said explosions and cliched sentimental dialogue in between explosions. What I wasn’t expecting was so many weird sexual scenes: from dogs humping, to the forcible intrusion of robot limbs into human orifices and one girl being covered in a suspicious looking goo. I guess Japan is still the Future after all.

Still, it was great to see Starscream and Megatron bickering on screen again. And John Turturro was as hilarious ever, both as former Sector7 agent, turned blogger “robo-warrior” and providing the voice for the antiquated Decepticon defector Jetfire.

There was much more screen time given to epic robot battles than in the first film, yet it was still 30mins to 1hr too long. Did they really need to divert into National Treasure territory?

Bonus points for using a rail-gun to take out the Devastator. Two steps back for collapsing half of the Middle East into a series of landmarks that you can run between.

Oh, and to quote the end of the chat:

Let us know in future if there’s any films in particular you’d like us to bring the Geek Panel back for - email extrahit@heraldsun.com.au begging for their return any time

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

14sec is a great little cyberpunk short-film. My man in Budapest, Damage, wrote the screenplay for it. The quality of the CG is particulary impressive.

(Warning - contains adult language, gore etc)

Productions notes, full cast etc on Damage’s blog.

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

The third installment of the Herald-Sun Geek Panel went to print today.  This was a weird one, since we did two movies this time.  Our reviews of Fanboys are online only, and the Terminator Salvation reviews are, as of writing of this, in print only.  Welcome to the weird world of a newspaper trying to do online.

We managed to have good discussion about all things Terminator.  Numbers were a bit down from the Star Trek chat, and there was a lot more troll action.  Still, I had fun.

Once more I give you the uncut and annotated review.  Spoilerz, etc:

How do you make an awesome movie and terrible one at the same time?  Get McG to direct, then bring in Christian Bale at the last minute.
Meet Terminator Salvation.  It’s one strange beast.

McG is without question a master visualist.  The 15minute epic Harvester scene, where Kyle Resse (Anton Yelchin) gets captured, is just pure joy for any lover of machine mayhem.  There’s robots within robots, all flinging and flying around at high speed.  Who cares that they’re evil, I want one!

The final battle, as John Connor (Christian Bale) goes in to rescue his teenage father is also glorious.  Not only does he fight a perfectly rendered Arnie, but the depiction of a SkyNet command center is just amazing.  Sure, the main control center, where Marcus (Sam Worthington) talks to a personification of SkyNet, looks like something from the Matrix’verse.  But it’s so crisp, we can forgive the references.  Because it’s all part of the zeitgeist now; in the center of the machine world everything must be all brilliant whites, and people clothed in soft-cotton.  Well, unless you want to be original..

Because without these two drool worthy action scenes, this movie is just plot-hole city.   McG can make the pretty, but he sure can’t direct.  The idea that drives the film holds up to about a second of rational thought.  A plot that suggests humanity deserves wiping out.  Blame me, I voted robot!

It’s really easy to pick this apart, so I’ll keep it short.  What kind of idiot thinks that a freaking short-wave signal is all it takes to stop a world an all-powerful AI and it’s robot minions?  Is this some bizarre reboot of Idiocracy.  Did SkyNet kill all the smart people, and it’s just the morons running around.  And speaking of morons, when did Connor get so stupid?  Did he suffer some sort of head-wound in between films?  What kind of fool broadcasts an open call to stop a secret attack?!  Seriously..

Back to what’s good.  Marcus.  Sam Worthington totally pulls a Ledger in this film, stealing the spotlight in every scene he shares with Bale.  His arrival post-JudgementDay is a brilliant inversion of the beginning of the franchise.  “What day is it, what year?”  But he hasn’t travelled back in time, he’s travelled forward the slow way - basically being in robo-hibernation for 15 years.  But he doesn’t know he’s a robot, er Terminator Infiltration unit - just like Boomer didn’t in BSG. That’s where this film shines.  AND WHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT BEFORE BALE STUCK HIS PRIMA-DONNA BITCH FACE IN, TAKING WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MINOR CHARACTER, AND DRAGGING HIMSELF AND HIS SUPPORTING CAST IN WITH THEIR STUPID DIALOG  AND..

No, don’t give in to the DarkSide..  Marcus’s character is fantastic and fascinating.  OK, he hooks up with Blair (Moon Bloodgood) a little too quickly, but the key point is that she sees him as a man, not a machine.  Because that’s what he is.  He’s retained his human brain, everything else is just ultimate prosthetics.  And this is a conversation that needs to be happening, because the increased merging of man and machine is in our future.  What does make us human?  If you wear glasses you’re augmented, no one questions that.  You have a pacemaker, that’s cool too.  Yet chopping off your arm to replace it with a robot one is considered freaky.  But within the near future it will be an option.  With last years Olympics it was decided that a guy with replacement legs should be able to compete with the able-bodied.  It won’t be long before those with prosthetics won’t be merely handy-capable, but hyper-capable.  The sooner more people accept this, the better.  And I was desperately hoping that this film would be centred around this.

Speaking of sounds of despair (ie my silent screams for most of this movie), not only were the visual effects amazing, so was the audio.  And the soundtrack.  I almost cried when Alices in Chains came out of the car radio.  The use of Guns and Roses “You Could Be Mine” was a nice nod to Terminator 2.

See this movie for the amazing visuals, you probably weren’t expecting the plot to make sense anyway.

The final installment of this run of the Geek Panel will be June 25, to dissect Transformers 2.   Hopefully we will be returning in December to rave about Cameron’s Avatar and maybe a few others out around then.

BONUS CONTENT!

You know what is a good little direct2video SF action movie.  Screamers: The Hunting!  It takes the whole “machines evolving to kill humans by posing as them” deal to some neat places, with a wicked ending.  I was reminded of this during Terminator Salvation by the Terminator eels that attack John Connor, and lead to Marcus saving him, and JC accepting Marcus as possibly being human.

You know what Terminator Salvation should’ve been?  STEAMPUNK!  Yes.  Think about it.  It’s completely absurd for the “resistance” to be flying around in their 20thC jets and using advanced comms and such.  How can they trust them?  SkyNet can be everywhere, inside anything with a chip, anything running software.  The only way to be safe is to go mechanical.  Clockwork guards set off by trip wires.  WorldWar II-era anti-aircraft guns.  Old as new tech vs computer algorithm generated machines.  A real battle of humanity’s creativity vs the AI challenger.  Now _that_ would be something!

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

The second installment of the Herald-Sun Geek Panel went to print today.

We had quite the spirited discussion of the film over on the website.  Ok, so it largely turned into a Star Wars vs Star Trek war, peppered with much love for all things Whedon on my part.  Ewoks were mentioned, and I also managed to work in a few Farscape references.

Once more I give you my uncut and annotated review.  Here be spoilerz:

I was ridiculously excited to check out the Star Trek reboot;  and I am in no way a Trekkie (or Trekker).  Though I am a massive science-fiction fan, I like Star Trek about as much as Mac people like PCs.

So why the excitement?  The trailers.  Here, I thought.. here’s exactly what the world needs.  To look up into space and see a new future for humanity.

Star Trek: TOS was launched during the height of the space-race.  The Apollo program was in full-swing, and though we’d always looked to the stars, for the first time they seemed within our reach.

This was an incredibly cutting-edge show, introducing concepts like teleportation and faster-than-light travel to mainstream audiences.  It made radical casting choices;  completely unprecedented for it’s time.  It dared to show humans of all genders and races working together “to seek out new life and new civilizations”.

How exciting to contemplate a reboot of this.  Something taking the spirit of the original series (and later films), and re-interpreting that within the 21stC condition.

But that’s not what J.J Abrams has delivered.  Instead, we get re-creationism.  A remake, not a reboot. He clearly spent a lot time thinking of how to reset Star Trek, whilst setting it within the same Universe. So we get angry Romulans from teh_Future, messing up the time-lines of Kirk and Spock and somehow making the logical Vulcan a sexy beast.

Also, Kirk, now the angry young man, who goes from being an Academy graduate, barred from the Enterprise, to it’s Captain in about 10 confusing minutes. He’s made First Officer why now? Ah JJ, always relying on ‘the fridge moment’ to fix his plot holes. Through another series of ‘accidents’, the whole, Original crew is assembled in short-order. And where accident fails, JJ sends in old-Spock, ’cause he came back too, hanging out in a cave in some Hoth-cold planet, making sure Kirk hooks up with McCoy.

I did like a few things about this movie. Karl Urban was the stand-out as Bones.  He made every line zing. (Simon Pegg was just Simon Pegg-as-McCoy and John Cho was shown up by his stunt-double).

Child Kirk and Spock just plain owned over their sexy early 20s versions.

I could watch child-Kirk outrunning a flying-cyborg cop, barely able to see over the steering-wheel of his ‘vintage’ car, with the Beastie Boys cranked up to 11 FOREVER.  (Except that scene was just a longer edit of the start of one of the trailers).

Ditto child-Spock, with mummy issues, throwing epic tantrums.

In fact, the whole movie I was waiting for Spock to say “let me tell you about my mother” and blast away with his phaser.

Also cool was the giant-red-ball of gooey doom.  Which, I’m taking as a reference to end of J.J’s second soap-opera, Alias. Wielded by a tattooed, white-faced Eric Bana (as Romulan leader Nero), one drop of the red-stuff was enough to destroy a world.

This gets me thinking;  I’d much rather watch the Letters from Iwo Jima to Star Trek’s Flags of Our Fathers.  Bana drifting through space for 25 years, waiting to take his revenge on the man that promised, but failed, to save his homeworld.  A man that doesn’t even exist when he arrives.  That might actually be interesting.

Star Trek fans will love this film.  Everyone else will wonder what all the fuss is about.

This is not new Bond.  Nor even new Batman.

In short:  epic franchise kickstart fail.

File next to: Dolph Lundgren’s The Punisher and Ang Lee’s Hulk.

The Geek Panel will return June 4 to rant and rave about Terminator: Salvation.

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

Kebabs and Coffee - these are few of my favourite things!

I found this place last week, but having just eaten I could only make a note to return.  And return I did today, ordering myself one of each.

The coffee was perfect.  The “kebab”..  well, it was one big pile of delicious meat.. wrapped in pita bread!

It is contentious in some circles, but to me if it has pita bread it’s a souvlaki.

Still, it was a very fine meal.

Location: Victoria St, Richmond (about halfway between Church St and Vic Gardens)
Service: Friendly
Price for Lamb “Kebab”: $AUS 8.50  ($10 with small coffee)
Halal: Unknown
Rating: Yummy

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

So, the debut of the Herald-Sun Geek Panel went to print today.  And it’s been online for like 5 hours now.

We’ve had the group chat (I mean “live” “blog”), which went really well, once I worked out where the damn widget was.

Now, for what it’s worth, here’s my uncut Wolverine review; which you can contrast against the much cut down version that went to print - if you care

(Thar be Spoilerz!):

Well, Elektra that wasn’t.  Praise the Lords of Kobol!

I got my epic Wolverine vs Sabretooth battles.  Even if they did it as a Cain vs Abel thing; which I guess it is.  And the historical battle montage in the title sequence was neat.

Liev Schreiber was fantastic as Sabretooth, in every way.  His animal gait, his snarl.  All perfect.

But what the hell was a Hobbit doing in this movie?  Hobbits aren’t superheroes!!  Gosh.

At least they did Gambit right.  His scenes were awesome and true to the character.  Sure, there’s a giant plot hole in one of them; “oh hi, let me stop you from killing the guy that I’m scared of and want dead, just so I can show you my awesome staff skills”.  Still, more Gambit please.

Kevin Durand was excellent as the Blob too; showing a bit more range than his role as a merc on Lost.

Which brings us to Ryan Reynolds; the man born to play Deadpool!  As Wade T Wilson, he’s got The Mouth alright.  But what’s he doing in the freaking Army?  Deadpool’s a mercenary, even before the Weapon X program.  Wrong!

And yes, I said Weapon X, not Weapon XI.. Mr Stupid Scriptwriter!

But wait, you’re not done there, are you?  You have to totally change the character of Deadpool, don’t you! He’s only supposed to get Wolverine’s healing power, not some crazy cocktail of super-powers. And yet.  And yet.  His showdown with Wolverine and Sabretooth is easily the best fight scene of the movie.

(And that’s saying something, there’s some pretty epic fight scenes in this film)

OK, I’ll admit, giving him teleportation helped there.  Except that he has teleportation as part of his awesome suit in the comics.  Which he never wore.  And I guess never will, since you saw fit to decapitate him!  Which ends any hope of us getting the awesome Deadpool movie we’ve all been waiting for.

Except that your successor will just write it out as a dream or something.  Grrr.  Not happy!  If only you’d called the character something else; and maybe explained where the hell those swords that are LONGER THAN HIS ARMS retract to?  ‘Cause whatever that thing was, it looked awesome.  It just wasn’t Deadpool.

Now, SFX.  And the studios were angry about the workprint being leaked?  Because people wouldn’t see the film in all it’s glory?  They why do Wolverine’s claws look like they were photoshopped by some gold-farmer in China on a toilet break?  And obvious blue-screens?  C’mon.  This is just unacceptable.

At least they got the slow-mo explosions right.

Oh yeah, the star, almost forgot.  Hugh Jackman was exactly the same as Wolverine.  One more role that like that and I might forget about Australia.

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

I said there was more, and this is it!

I’m one third of the Herald-Sun’s new Geek Panel column.

We’ll be reviewing and “live blogging” the next big four blockbuster movies to come out:  Wolverine, Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation and Transformers 2.

Plus, a bonus film:  Fanboys!  Which is kinda appropriate.

Which means that this Thursday my words will be in a newspaper (and online).

I know, dinosaur blogs.  Crazy!

So if you’re in Melbourne, grab a copy of the Herald-Sun to see what I thought about Wolverine.

Or just check back here, ’cause I’ll post the link to the online version and put up my uncut review.

Then tune in from 12:30->1:30 (Australian time) on Thursday, where we live-blog with the readers and hopefully have some fun.

Exciting times!

Oh, and next week is Star Trek.  The other films aren’t out ’til June.

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

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a basket full of my office junk,
originally uploaded by M1K3Y.

My how time flies. It’s been over a fortnight since I took this picture, after I arrived home from being made redundant from my exciting job sitting in a cubicle all day, churning out code.

My life is now divided into (big) units of time. Which, in a surprise to me, has largely seen me away from a keyboard a lot of time. Doing things like reading books and gardening, and all that stuff around the house that I’d been putting off. And adapting to my newly time-rich lifestyle in general.

Which, will hopefully include actually blogging here, on a more regular basis. Because I have time for long, considered posts now. And mini-reviews of books I now have time to read. (My to-read pile is now a shelf!) And in general sharing what changes I make as I adapt from life in the cubicle all day, to life out in the world.

I’ve always said I’d rather be Professionally Me, and now’s my chance. Because I got a big enough payout that I don’t have to look for work for at least a few months. Which is handy, because everyone seems to be firing, not hiring right now.

But this means I can focus, when I am at the keyboard, on writing more online. Grow Gonzo Squad into something awesome. Find more seeds of the future for Grinding.be. And (I can’t believe I didn’t mention this here before) find more cool men’s fashion for Stylish Gent.

But wait, there’s more. I just can’t talk about it yet Stay tuned!

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

It’s Hostel meets Jurassic Park meets Night of the Living Dead:  Zombie Theme Parks where your undead fantasies are made real.

Pick an arbitrary number; call it anywhere from 20 to 50 years from now.  You and your crew book a flight (wait, do we still fly then?), well, travel anyway to some poor, forgotten section of the Earth, off-world even.  Whatever.  That’s not the point.  The point is killing zombies; for fun.

Note, these aren’t actual “undead” zombies.  No.  Just cutting edge bio-tech.  OK, maybe it comes after the it’s cutting edge.  Maybe it’s something some guy hacked together (get it), from pieces lying around the Street.  What you get are vaguely humanoid “zombies”, not conscious, no, just lurching figures in the dark that are cheap to make and fun to dismember.

Because by then zombies will be retro.  We’ll have moved on to far greater horrors that haunt our collective minds.  We’ll laugh to remember how we all “prepared” for that coming Apocalypse.

So what would be more relaxing and novel than going to such a theme park and spending a day dolling out death.  Playing William Tell, shooting the apple from impressive distances.  One-on-one death matches with their most vicious bio-engineered brutes (most likely being remote-controlled by your pet cat).  Ending in a battle royale; fighting the horde with your best buds beside you.

Paintball?  Bah!  This will be the Corporate team-building exercise of choice.

Now get the time line right, and we’re all post-human and more importantly, post-death.  So these recreated undead can be right nasty.  And the winner will be last one standing.  Then, on the trip back, as you settle into your latest body, you can laugh as you watch a replay of your friend’s brain being eaten from his skull.

Of course not everyone’s fantasy is killing zombies, is it.  I’m sure such a place would cater for every kink out there.

Because reality is the slow exploration of all possibilities.

Originally published at The Tech Gonzo Diary. You can comment here or there.

by Jerem Morrow

I am tres excited to be able to announce the much anticipated release, well by me anyway, of The Assassins Mashup Project.  Wherein a team of writers (and myself) take a short poem and use it as the basis for a slightly longer work.

You can find my humble contribution at the very end (warning: contains very harsh language, violence and some gore).

Once more I have only the man behind junkdnafiction to blame.  Or thank.

You be the judge.

Originally published at M1K3¥'s b-log. You can comment here or there.

I hear and obey the lizbt. This is my manifesto.

soundtrack

If I had a heart by Fever Ray

I WANT MOAR

MOAR.. GIVE ME MOAR, GIVE ME MOAR

tag cloud

motto

Originally published at M1K3¥'s b-log. You can comment here or there.

Do you see?

Whales hate hippies too.

And this one’s too stupid to realize the lesson she was being given with a near-drowning.

Leave the whales alone you dirty, dirty hippies..

At least until we establish inter-species communication and full diplomatic relations. Then they’ll show us what’s really going on down there.

Originally published at M1K3¥. You can comment here or there.

ignore

Originally published at M1K3¥. You can comment here or there.

There is only one solid reason that I’d consider moving to Japan: for the gaming.

Not only do they get every new console out first, and most every new game months, sometimes years before the great southern gaming dead-land of Australia (apparently the rest of the world has some game caled Rock Band?), they also have the best Arcade games.

And the best of the best Japanese arcade games, ergo the best arcade game in the world, is the Mobile Suit Gundam game.

I could ramble on and on about how sweet this game is.

That it has a seperate control console to check your gamer stats; with a widescreen fixed above, to watch replays/highlights of the previous games.

That you play live online against equally ranked players across Japan with your printable ink gamer card.

That, in short, it’s the best fulfilment of the promise of Avalon I’ve yet seen. Except, AFAIK, you still can’t swap game points for food for your basset hound.

No, instead I’ll let others do all the hard-lifting. Starting with this great walk-through, via Gizmodo

Then, to get more in-depth, these are the tutorial videos I wish I had watched before or during my trip (instead of just totally winging it):

Now you see why I’d go back.

Except this would require an immediate and complete learning of the Japanese language, both spoken and written.

And it would be totally worth it.

Because the day North Korea actually does launch nukes on the Land of the Rising Sun, the *real* mech warrior suits will rise from their underground bunkers, and the trained and ready will step forward, insert their gamer cards and save the friggin’ world. Then fly on to Mars and beyond…

Originally published at M1K3¥'s b-log. You can comment here or there.

So, need another reason why I’m never posting here. Apart from Grinding, obviously.

Here; behold the majesty of The Worldwide Culture Gonzo Squad, Inc.

You like; YOU LIKE NOW!!

You bookmark. You tell your friends.

More importantly, you tell your enemies; and while they’re distracted you kill them. With a spoon. Or The Mallet.

Yes, just what the world needs; another group-blog. Well, at least it’s not a link-blog. Huh!

But this one is awesomer.

For one, people are still being collected; so you can watch it form.

For two; well, it’s not a link-blog. Wait, I already said that. OK, so yes, it’s mandate is pretty freaking open, just that it’s content will pretty much be 100% original. Our initial tag line is:

Field reports and thoughts on culture, gigs, games and gore from around the world.

See: O.P.E.N.

Basically, whatever the hell any of us feel like putting up. So long as it’s thoughts from our brains… There will be none of that whole First! mentality.

Yes, you see now, don’t you…

It’s link-blog food! The precious. The diggable, the deliciousable, the /.-able, the BoingBoing’age comment war content generator stuff.

And it’s all MopedRonin’s fault.

Originally published at M1K3¥'s b-log. You can comment here or there.

Quarantine is the latest hate-crime Hollywood has committed on the rest of the world, a remake of the fantastic Spanish zombie horror [REC].

My journo friend sent me this tshirt; she is teh_funny.

Everyone’s up in arms at the news Spielberg and Will Smith are remaking Old Boy. I swear I heard something about Gary Oldman doing it; that might almost have worked.

I’m just glad they’ve ignored The Host (with it’s ironic tag: “see it before the inevitable remake”) and Volcano High.

South Korea, like a lot of the world, are beating Hollywood at it’s own game. All their shitty remakes are just making them look silly. Even when they try to cross-bread it comes out stale; Wanted is nothing on Day Watch, or even Night Watch.

Now I read [REC] 2 is in the works, no doubt funded by the quick sale of their rights. I hope they torture a film crew from LA this time.

Originally published at M1K3¥'s b-log. You can comment here or there.

“Euchronia” is a play on words, in this form taken from the Greek “eu”, meaning “good”, and “chronos”, “time”. Time is a central theme of the event, and you may notice things not quite as they should appear in a twenty-first century ball. If you look carefully at the details, you may see evidence of some rather astounding happenings occurring during the evening.

This in no way influenced any purchases I made in Japan.

Originally published at M1K3¥'s b-log. You can comment here or there.

This is awesome! Just the kind of thing I’d love to stumbled onto while my wife was off soaking in an onsen. Instead, the best TV I found was watching the US Vice Presidential debate on BBC World News with a live Japanese dubbing.

Part of the ‘myth of Japan’ is the awesome TV. It’s supposed to be Super Happy Fun Time 24×7 right? Instead it’s just weird, as in boring, dramas, and live ‘variety’ shows, the kind the above clip was cribbed from, where most of the humor is derived from pulling funny faces. Srsly.

And the anime is only on pay-tv, and screens after 11pm. ‘Cause that is when everyone gets home.

Made.In.DNA tells me this was far less the case in the 1980s and 1990s. That Galaxy show screened at 7:30. The game shows were awesome.

That’s when the myth was created I think. WTF happened since?!