Eko TV!

I had a late-night lesson teaching adults tonight, so I haven't had much time for blogging. I did manage to squeeze in some time and find a copy of Episode 1 of the TV series though it's only in Japanese. You probably figure it out for the most part. There's a suicide (murder?) at the High School and a couple of Scooby Doo-esque teen-detectives try and solve the mystery but only get more deeply embroiled in it. (I hope that link works. I don't trust Niconico videos, they seem sketchy.)

The actress who played Misa Kuroi (our favourite witch) in this series is Hinako Saeki and you can check out her Twitter page at that link.

I just discovered that when the Series was released on DVD, it came with some action figures! Sheesh, now I have to track them down as well...

Here's today's postcard.

Note the above scene does not show up in the TV show.

Revision: Oops. I posted that particular picture yesterday, so here's a new one. I'll make it a Black and White one so I don't get confused again.

Before I forget, I like watching Walking Dead before going to bed because I always have a Zombie-related dream. I usually forget my dreams, but these ones are memorable. 

So I was with Rick and Darryl fighting the WD and I was wielding a knife. We got separated and somehow I ended up on a moving train. I left the car that I was in looking for a bathroom and stumbled into a posh car full of celebrities. I remember seeing a bearded Harrison Ford, Keifer as Jack Bauer and Crispin Glover as he appeared on Letterman. I saw a flyer for Holly Cole and commented that I'd like to see that and then Holly Cole appeared in front of me. At another table, I saw Scott Thompson hanging around with other Kids in the Hall and I excused myself to go talk to him. (I knew Scott from Boy Scouts and haven't spoken to him in 40 years, though I did run into his mom from time to time.) So I chased after Scott but he got away from me. Then one of the waiters took out a gun and was about to fire into the crowd of celebs when I attacked him with my knife and saved the day! OR did I? Because at that moment my alarm went off and I had to go to work! Sigh.

Who knows what I'll dream of tonight? I hope I get a continuation of last night's.

Today's featured Cryptkeeper is AEIOU and Sometimes Why who have a contest going on right now, alas, one has to reside in America to win it.

No snacks today, yet I've supplied you with the entrance display to the Aeon Supermarket's Halloween goodies.

Finding McCay's Nemo.

Yesterday was the 112th anniversary of the strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland. When the movie came out, I loved it and gave a VHS copy to my niece when she was 5 or so. She watched it often and I watched it with her when I visited.

What I did not know is that it was a Japanese/American co-production. Ray Bradbury created the concept for screen, Brian Froud was among the design developers, Jean "Moebious" (sic.) Giraud was the Conceptual Designer and that both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata of Ghibli fame were once involved in the project. The Japanese side of things went to TMS Entertainment's and here is their version of Little Nemo.

 

If you can read Japanese, here is a synopsis:

The pamphlet includes a write up on creator Winsor Zeric McCay (actually Zenas Winsor McCay but I can forgive the translator) and a copy of one of the strips

There's an interview with co-director, William Hurtz.

Here's the rest of the cast and staff:

By a wacky coincidence, this is what the tea I bought was called.

In order to add a little Halloween to this post, I learned of a Youkai called a Suima today. My friend's student explained to him that when she is trying hard to concentrate, she is sometimes accosted by the Sleep Monster and begins to doze off. (If I ever get into a fender bender on my way home from work due to drowsiness, I'm going to use the Suima excuse.)

I looked it up in the dictionary and it bears a resemblance to a Kelpie, a water demon which brings floods.

Here's a ukiyoe rendition of a 水魔 / Suima, 1932 by Sayume Tachibana.

Kohada Koheiji, 1831-1832 by Hokusai Katsushika. He's a cutie but I don't think he's a Suima.

How about these two? Not very frightening, I'm afraid.

I guess I'll have to do some more research in order to find a true Suima!

Sweet Dreams!

PopKong!

I have lamented the lack of goods for King Kong in the past and so far the only thing I can come up with is a jumbo barrel of Popcorn with KK's name on it.

The only place that sells it is 109 Cinemas in Tomiya and though it is not inexpensive (750 yen), it did last me a few days.

   

I had time to kill so I popped into the neighbouring Aeon Mall and I saw a Shin-Godzilla poster in a record store. Sure enough, they had some Goodzilla Goods and I had to get some. A nice little 3D postcard.

Notice how the one above is perfectly cropped and the one below has a bit of finger attached. Thanks to the app, Office Lens, I now have the equivalent of a scanner and cropper built into my photos, it works especially well with documents or posters.

A Clear File of course.

And most importantly, a pair of boxers. I'm wearing them now and they are very comfortable.

In some non-kaiju related news, I received a Clear File from my school today as part of an Anti-Bullying campaign. That's a pretty gruesome image there.

But after the campaign, it should result in a happy ending.

I also scanned this pic from the newspaper advertising the City Art Museum with an exhibition of Cats and Ukiyoe.  I may just have to check it out.

I'm going to leave you with a verbatim diatribe about a dream I had this morning. I almost never remember my dreams so when I awoke at 4:30, I just had to transcribe it for my pals on Facebook.

I was an intern on a CBC comedy/documentary style show in which we'd drive around the city of Toronto and the regular comedians and guests would make amusing jokes or anecdotes about what we've seen on the streets.
(I don't know if such a show is practical or not nor whether it's ever been done but that is the premise of the show.)
The one unbreakable rule that the producer of the show had is that we must never leave the door open because her cute little dog, a terrier, would run away. Throughout the days filming, it became apparent to me that she didn't really care for the dog and the feeling seemed to be mutual.
I was already in a bit of hot water because the shows special guest was Susan Sarandon and I made her upset. Everything inside the van is filmed live and part of the popularity of the program is the quirkiness of the guests. Susan needed to move from one side of the vehicle to the other and I said to her, "It's just a jump to the left.", and motioned for her to take a seat. She just glared at me and justifiably so for I recall the times she'd be on Dave Letterman who'd always anger her by bringing up Rocky Horror when she was his guest which she expressly insisted that he not do so for she hated that role.
Anyway, there were a few good jokes on the program and it was running smoothly for the rest of the day. At one point, one of the stagehands went out for a smoke break when we were parked at Queens Park and left the door open. The dog guiltily looked at me and motioned towards the door and I made to attempt to stop it and the canine booted it out of the van and started chasing squirrels in the park. The producer furiously ran after the mutt, swearing her head off at both the dog and me and after fifteen minutes of running and cursing, she managed to wrangle the pup back into the van.
After that the rest of the day progressed coldly but smoothly and I noticed that she had a bag of marijuana and though she never smoked it, she'd consume the buds. She also fed them to her dog who gobbled them up gleefully. I thought to myself that that dog could sure run fast for something that must be stoned all the time.
At the end of the day, I was relieved when she said to Dave, the intern who had vouched for me, "See you tomorrow." For both he and I were sure that he'd be fired. She said that he wasn't let go but someone on the set was not welcome back and she winked at me.
My parting comment to everyone was as follows. "When Marjorie takes her dog for a walk, I wonder if she scoops out the buds from its poop and then proceeds to smoke them, sort of like the coffee beans plucked from the excrement of civet cats and then brewed up for a very expensive cup of java. Thus the history of the expression, 'Man, this is really good shit!'"
It got the biggest laugh of the day but unfortunately the cameras had stopped filming by that time.

Geez, that was longer than I thought...