Onigen, Offigen.

I've lost track of time today thanks to the following marathon (on daikaijutv):

Devilman (2004)  • The Manster (1959)  • Meatball Machine (1999)  • Casshern (2004) • Skull Soldier (1992) • Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)  • Full Metal Yakuza (1997)  • Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) • Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009) • The Visitor in the Eye (1977)

I caught snippets of Devilman for breakfast, watched The Manster for the first time, caught snippets of Meatball Machine, Casshern, Skull Soldier, Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Full Metal Yakuza none of which were my cup of tea. In between, I managed to do two loads of laundry and some tidying up. I put on the headphones and watched Blood: The Last Vampire in its entirety even though I have it on DVD. I love that movie and I wrote about it here (I even used a similar title back then.) I'm listening to the final movie, which is a live action version of Blackjack, while I'm typing this.

The vampire in question looks a little bit like this Incubus. (Cue segue to Monster book.)

 

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out its female equivalent, the Succubus.

 

 Unrelated to the above, I scored a very nice Todd figure of Norman Bates in pristine shape last week. 

 

 

Back in those pre-internet days of the 90s, my brother and I drove to New Orleans. On the way back, we popped into Universal Studios in Florida and went to a Q&A about Universal Movies. The host asked if anyone knew what they used to film the realistic looking blood in the shower scene. I piped in with "Chocolate Syrup" and the dude was duly impressed. Years of Monster Magazine reading finally paid off. (As an aside, we went into a taping of Nickelodeon's You Can't Do That On Television and there was a segment where they were throwing rubber chickens at contestants. The host asked the audience if there was anything they could do to make the show more exciting (expecting the audience to shout SLIME) and my brother yelled out, "Throw live chickens!" The host did NOT expect that.) 

I picked up this box of a dozen UltraMan Pringles at CostCo recently. I haven't indulged yet, I'm not certain if I want to consume them myself or give them away as prizes. 

 

 For a change, I haven't carved up any veggies today. so I'll end with another blogger recommendation, Your Best Halloween Ever.

Courgettes or Zucchini? You choose.

Today was a very good, albeit exhausting, day. For my first lesson, I showed my 1st year gals part 2 of Sleepy Hollow. A much greater majority of them were watching and not snoozing, so I'll call that a win.

Lesson 2: my hard to please 2nd year gals. I nuked a half dozen Sweet Potatoes and they were still hard as rock. So the kiddies nuked them again in the cafeteria. All is good. I forgot to bring the cutting tools. We improvised with some cutters and small spoons, and a few disposable knives and spoons. One potato collapsed in on itself when digging out its guts.The biggest one didn't cook at all. That left four success stories. Everyone enjoyed eating the innards of the spuds (I brought margarine) and squeals of glee and accomplishment when I lit the candles were music to my ears.

  

After lunch, I gathered up my wardrobe and allowed the lads in Engineering to gear up for Trick or Treat. They added nunchucks, samurai swords and other weapons to their repertoire and we strolled down to the office for a couple of marshmallow sweets. The staff obliged.

 I'm the guy in the Terrifier (I think) mask.

After work, I stopped off at a cheap clothing store hoping to get some ideas for a costume this year. I did not. I dozed at my desk and then cracked down on carving more veggies before they go rotten.

I did finish the aforementioned big Sweet Potato, but it's a fairly pathetic result. Also its guts were inedible. 

 

Hold on, did I buy a courgette zucchini a few days ago? Sure enough. Can you recognize the almost indecipherable theme song? (Click here.)

Yes, it's a ZuScreami!
 

It's guts were fried up with a bit of Soy Sauce.

 They really needed to be much larger to carve properly. These Fun Guys tried to oblige.

 

They sautéd nicely.

My final creation was an Avocado. Much to my surprise, it had not turned black and disgusting.

You can see a little vid of my Avocad o' Lantern here. And it was quite consumable.

Let's see, most avocados come from Mexico. So I need a segue to today's monster. How about Quetzalcoatl? 

 

Oh nice, a YouTube with only the monster scenes. Here ya go.

 

I missed yesterday's link to a Countdown blogger. How about Action Figure BBQ or Count Gregula? (Did I link to them earlier? I've lost track.)

I have a day off tomorrow so...laundry! 

I'm Comin' Beany-Boy!

A favourite of mine in actual and current childhood is Beany & Cecil. You can find the Japanese lyrics at that click. 

 

I can't find any videos of the theme song in Japanese so we'll just have to suffice with this:

 

But while we're on the topic of Sea Serpents, here's a few pics of Sendai's very own 

Pokémon, ラプラス Lapras (Laplace?) at the Tohoku History Museum.

 

I just had to harass Lapras.

And there just happens to be a park in Rifu (Kasenuma Park) that features it in a play area. Since we were in the area, we popped by for a visit.

  

 

This happens to be a slide but since it was drizzling out and I didn't want to be a soggy bottom boy,

I opted against the descent. (For a time I embarrassingly slid down a brachiosaurus's back, try this.)

 

 

 

There were other creatures as well, forgive me if I don't know their names. Feel free to enlighten me.

 

 

 

I really like this sharkey one.

Fortunately there were no kids around for me to frighten.

 

 

Hey, a Pikachu bench!

 I found this little critter for a buck somewhere. Apparently it's a Rainy Sky Dragon from the Rainbow Dragon Mascot Figure series. So now you know.

 

 

Furthermore, no self-respecting book about monsters would be without their own Sea Serpent.

 

 

 
 That's it for tonight, I have a busy day tomorrow and am nowhere near prepared for it...

Mewtwo Movement

I made it to the Tagajo History Museum today for its special Pokémon x Crafts display. I was not expecting much and when I saw the price, (1600yen) I balked even more. Fortunately it also includes access to the permanent displays as well. I was dumbstruck by how impressive it was!

 

Mewtwo by Yoshida Taiichiro, using copper, silver gliding, engraving, hammering, patination (it's a proper term Google Correct, no need to light it up in red! A surface finish on metals like bronze.) and cloisonné.  Impressive work!

Turns out I took over 300 photos, so I shan't share them all today. I'm in a hurry cuz I'm off to Biohazard soon.

So I'll just share some of the creepier photos from the Permanent Museum Display.

 Beijing Man or Peking Man?

 

A very cool reproduction of a Nickel and Dime Store:

Now the creepier stuff.

Separated from Birth?

 

 

 

Now those are some impressive カカシ Scarecrows!

Some equally impressive masks:

 

A pretty good exhibit, so if you're in the neighbourhood, drop by.

I don't know if any of the above can be considered Golems, but ya never know. 

 

 

Check out Me and You and a Blog named Boo if you're so inclined.

I gotta take off, see ya on the flipside.