Well, I appologise for not updating for a while been quite busy as is usually the case with everyone these days, plus I couldn’t really think of anything to tell, so I will simply tell you what’s been going on with me for the past few weeks.

I have been slowly building my music collection for year now, few albums here and there, couple of singles and it all starts to add up. And recently I’ve only just noticed how much I actually have when my iPod started to brink on full (30GB). I currently now have 26.41GB of Music, 4821 songs, for a grand total of 14.2 days STRAIGHT of music. It’s a ridiculous amount really, my iPods battery is already losing power everytime I recharge it as I have had it for a few years now, but there is no chance I have enough power to listen to all my Music on shuffle.

And yet I am always looking for something new to please my Ears with, always bored of my “old” Music. It drives me crazy you know. Having to have something fresh all the time.

Currently though I am satisfying my cravings with the Hamish and Andy podcast. Funny blokes these guys, and seeing as I have no working Radio in my car currently (need a radio extension cable) I don’t get to listen to their show.

Other things I have been watching recently are:

• Lost Season 5 Boxset
• Mentalist Season 1 Boxset

Due to coming down with a cold too, I spent most of yesterday watching TV, so I have finished both

I’m afraid thats all for now folks, more to follow shortly. Tune in again soon!

Seth

With Christmas quickly approaching Disney/Pixar along with Mattel have got their Christmas CARS release out and about at Toys R Us, Disney Stores and at Target. The Holiday CARS include Snow Day Sally, Holiday Spirit Sheriff, Holiday Hot Shot Lightning McQueen, Decked Out Doc Hudson, and Christmas Crusier Ramone. Target secured a 6 pack box set of all the above CARS but the 6th is the DEAL BREAKER MUST HAVE! (REINDEER MATER) Reindeer Mater is Jacked up on real rubber snow tires accented with snow and dons a cool antler tipped snow hat. A+++ creativity from the Disney CARS team at Mattel. The singles are good but the Box set is better! I will let the pictures do the talking!

I got Snow Day Sally in single form for my daughter since opening the set at the moment isn’t going to happen.

The Target Exclusive Box Set:

They could have packaged this as a single and shipped 20 cases to each store and I am willing to wager they would sell out in hours!

habe ich mir das Album von Mando Diao – The Malevolence of Mando Diao.  Es ist ein Box-Set bestehend aus 2 CDs und einer DVD mit Aufnahmen aus den Jahren 2002 – 2007. Die zwei CDs enthalten die B-Sides der Single’s oder EP sowie Titel die nur auf Special Editions erhältlich sind. Weiterhin gibt es eine DVD mit einem unplugged Aufnahmen. Zusammengenommen 39 Songs auf zwei CDs und dann noch mal 17 Aufnahmen auf der DVD. Und nun warte ich auf die Lieferung und hoffe, dass sie morgen endlich eintrifft.

Sehr gut gefallen  mir (vielen Dank youtube) folgende Songs:

India Love
Deep blue sea
Hail the sunny days
Searching for owls
Last Time infected
She’s so
Cinderella
Sheepdog
Long before Rock n’Roll
Lady

So, I was skeptical of the Radiolarians: The Evolutionary Set for the three great jam/jazz albums that I already had, until I saw what Medeski Martin & Wood were offering in the boxset… all three CDs, a remix CD, a live album, a double vinyl with choice cuts, and a DVD…

(click for larger)

(click for larger)

Plus… pre-order by 11/10/09 and get 20% Off retail price and be entered to win 2 Free Tickets to an MMW concert on their Nov/Dec tour!  Pre-order by 11/30/09 and get a Free T-shirt from their “Free Tee Department.”

Find out more at MMW.com’s store HERE.

Let’s just say, “I listed my current Radiolarians on Amazon for sale used”…

~Dan – np: Piano Magic – Ovations

Okay, so it’s not this one. And it’s not this one at all, too. If you are out of your gay mind and not buying this, you will probably end up with this cover (above) or just “3” as a download. Because, in all realness, if you don’t have all the tracks on this compilation you are probably to far into this paragraph. This is the official cover of the non-box set version of the Singles Collection.

There has been TONS of new items dropping daily in my area. I was finally able to snatch one of these up at the local Target. It looks very good up close without any flaws. Nice design work! Now it is time to find a GIL hauler!

The singles collection will contain just that – the entire singles collection in their original artwork in sleeves. Every single single Britney has released will be in that box. A smart move considering that this offering is about the packaging more than the content. So, there won’t be illegal downloading because the tracks are already available, the real draw in the package.

Robbie Williams recently did that and it went over well. But, he has quiet an impressive b-side catalogue so that could be a factor in fans purchasing. But, Britney’s fans will undoubtedly dish out the amount for such a ordeal. Good job!

I finally came across the Leak Less TEAM Haulers at Target. They have a new Piston Cup Nights motif instead of the Race O Rama packaging.

Anyone who saw my tweet earlier will know I picked up my The Stone Roses boxset today. A quick drive to the central post office in Karama, a nervous couple of minutes whilst I watched the young local guy with the scalpel – will he or won’t he? I had visions of a heavy-handed scalpel carving through the front cover – defaced and devalued for ever! (Would I have ordered another copy?)

So, the original album is pumping out of my KEF Ref 3-2s as we speak. The bass box is rumbling to Mani’s thunderous bass and Mr. Squire is going higher and higher as “I Am The Resurrection” comes to a close. Wonderful.

It’s definitely one of those “every-year-or-so” albums. Out it comes. Gets a week or so of heavy duty airplay and then it disappears again. Influential – I think so. Defined a lot of the sounds that followed. I’m not sure BritPop would have happened without The Stone Roses. But I’m not here to theorise on the importance of The Stone Roses or this album. Importance – that’s a fact. Seminal album – undisputed.

I’m going to take a look at what’s in the box. And, to reminisce a bit when fancy takes me.

What Do I Get? Three CDs; The original album. The singles and B-Sides. The Lost Demos. Three heavyweight vinyl re-pressings of the first two of the CDs. DVD; Blackpool, Empress Ballroom Live and the videos. 48-page book; photos, commentary from most of the band and various peers and follow-ons. A USB stick in the shape of a lemon; contains ALL the media in the box in digital format with a few extra tracks, some more videos, wallpapers and ringtones. Six John Squire art-prints.

Let’s pull it to pieces then. The first two CDs have been packaged and re-packaged many times before. Nothing new there. If you were around at the time, you’ll more than likely have the vinyl in its original format too.

I’m looking forward to “The Lost Demos” CD. This was what I was hoping for. Not necessarily new stuff, but a new take on it. It’s a pity that the early singles (and maybe the original early “Garage Flowers” era demo/album) weren’t included. But, I know, I know, it’s a commemoration of the album not the band. (“Going Down” now. Now “Guernica”).

The DVD is nothing new. We’ve had that on VHS. And recently on DVD.

The Book is well put together. A good collection of quotes and essays. Influence, the vibe, the time, the place. Good pictures. The book takes me back for a few moments; Legends, Warrington. From the end of 88 through 90 I was a regular. Drinks in the Barley Mow then off to Legends. Did I see the Roses? No – I’m sure I didn’t. But that was one of those small in-between venues that attracted some great live bands. Don’t know what’s happened to it now.

Back to the review – the albums are all housed in the centre of the boxset, alongside the “art-prints”. Again – “art-prints” – cover art. If you have the vinyl you’ll have a lot of this. The book is protected in an “box/envelope” on the inside front-cover. Like I said, the book is ok.

The CDs, DVD and USB are recessed in the back cover of the boxset. Kept in place by a glued rubber centre-piece. When I un-packed mine, the DVD and one of the CDs was already loose. Not great. (The USB stick is really cheap looking!)

Down to the million dollar question – is it worth it? If you’re a complete-ist – yes! But to be honest if you only want the Demo album, pickup the 2-CD plus DVD “Legacy” set. I’m glad I got it, but I’m really waiting for that complete early to end of “Second Coming” anthology. That’s what the world is waiting for.

p

I first saw the IT crowd on the Interweb somewhere, lurking down one of those pipes. At first I thought it was one of those really great little amateur productions that you only get on the web and that sadly never make it any further in spite of their genius. Believe me, this is quite a compliment coming from me, some of that stuff is pure wasted genius! And then I found out it was actually a proper thing that had been on the telly and all, and there was much rejoicing.

Some of you, I fear, may have already downloaded the series. This is wrong.

After all, you wouldn’t steal a baby, would you? Then take a shit on the baby and give it back to its mother. Then steal her handbag while she’s distracted. Then take a shit in the handbag and give it back? Then steal the baby again, and eat it with mint sauce. Would you?

I hope you wouldn’t, otherwise I’m pretty sure I don’t want you visiting my blog, so bugger off.

Seriously, buy the DVD boxset.

Why? Not because it’s the right thing to do. Not because it’s a few more pennies in the pocket of the very delightful and deserving Graham Linehan (I could just kiss his brain) and all his chums what made it. No, you should buy them because the DVDs themselves are just genius. This weekend, for the first time ever, I sat there watching a DVD menu, just for the sake of it. Each menu and submenu is a hilarious little homage to those old computer games, the Lemmings and the Prince of Persias we all know and love.

Not only are the menus absolutely brilliant, the artwork seriously cute, and of course the series itself as funny as a pink banana, but the DVD bonuses kick some serious donkey too. And you can have the while thing subtitled in Geek, or in 1337 if you should so wish.

Awesomeness in a box. Buy it. Now.

The wait is over. The Battlestar Galactica complete series is hitting stores on July 28th for $220. It’s available for pre-order from most retail stores. Even the Cylon packaging looks good. Endless marathons here I come. Now for the dough to purchase it…… hmm…..

Marathoning anime is fun. Especially when your watching a show with a continuing storyline. A lot of times when I watch shows with continuing storylines I notice I get borad or forget to watch them because other things to do. With dvds I can just watch them all when I’m still interested and have free time.

Magical Girl Lyical Nanoha

I actaully got this for Christmas, but only watched it last week.

First of all, I really enjoyed the OP “Innocent Starter”. It was just good, and really fit in with the overall mood of the series. The song wasn’t my favorite of Nana Mizuki’s, but it was still awesome. More importantly the animation lived up to the song, which is more then I can say for a certian anime that aired this Winter which also had another awesome Nana Mizuki song for it’s OP.

Nanoha overall was a fun anime. Maybe not the best out there, but definitely fun. Something I could enjoy without having to think too much about it.  People don’t realize the value of fun in anime enough anymore, which I think is a bit of a let down. Sure, a show can be touching and well made and everything, but what’s the point in watching if you’re not having any fun. Nanoha was fun to watch. It reminded me of what I enjoy about magical girl anime and since it was realitively short it was mostly free from pointless filler (the one thing I really don’t like about anime).

Ouran High School Host Club Part 2

I finally got of my ass and bought it this week. I already watched Ouran online, but I liked enough that I want to own.

Ouran isn’t exactly a favorite of mine, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. It’s probably one of the better adapted of  shojo mangas that aren’t magical girl series into animes that I’ve seen. It’s a pity that Bones doesn’t make more shojo animes.( I’d love to see what they’d do with Maid-sama or Koukou Debut). I also enjoy how Ouran makes fun of shojo and fangirls well at the same time embracing them.

This is the only one of the boxsets I watched with a dub. I usually prefer to watch a show in subtitles now (will only watch shows I origanally saw in dub such as fruits basket), but I watched it dubbed because I watched it with my mom.(she’ll watch shojo/school animes without fighting in them). Funimation actually did a decent job though. Lol at Vic M. though. He tries way too hard.

Princess Tutu

It's good to know that Fakir's eyebrows were always that thick

This is more like a magical girl show I’d usually watch.

It’s really interesting. It reminded me a lot of old Disney movies before Toy Story came out especially the ones made in the earlier days. The animation style might seem a little odd, but it really fits the feel of the animation. I liked how each episode was based around a fairytale or story, or at least that’s what the beginning intacated. The whole story within a story idea was cool, if a bit creepy. It also really reminded me of Utena, since they’re both based around the idea of roles within a story and both have a lot of hints about what will probably happen to the main characters. The ending was sort of sad, but it did give the audience a hope that he would find a way to really turn her into a human girl.

Air

I started crying at around episode 6 and didn’t stop until the end. Seriously.

It was different from the Air movie, but I like them both. They just took different paths of the same story. I really enjoyed the fact that mother-child relationships were the overarcing theme of the anime. Clannad had a bit of it, but was focused more on the idea of family as a whole or sibling relationships. The animation was also very pretty, as one would expect of a Kyonai verison of a Key game. I also liked how there were only three girls in the series, which meant they could spend a decent portion of time on Minagi and Kano, but still have more then enough time to focus on Misuzu’s story. I like Clannad better storywise and main characters wise, but Air is my favorite as an overall production.

——

So now, I’m finished all my boxsets for a time. I’m getting another one at the end of this week and will buy one or two more over the summer. I mainly want to have a lot to watch during the winder, particularly around Christmas time. I’ll probably watch Kanon or Nanoha A’s on dvd next after I get the other thing. I also want Soul Eater and few other series when they come out. I’m glad funimation has switched to boxsets. It’s cheaper and easy to watch a complete series rather then to buy dvds with four episodes on them that cause almost the same amount of money.

Today, I finished my last exam in Hetalia-err sorry I mean History. Therefore, I now have lots and lots of time on my hand, a portion of which can go to watching anime, blogging, and commenting on blogs.

First I really want to apolgize for not commenting on comments. I really love all the people who  take the time to comment on my nonsensical/ crapass posts, and wish I could respond back more often. Also, I want to apolgize for not commenting on people’s blogs more often. Heck I didn’t even know that the extremely awesome Kiseki had a blog now. Those are actually the two things I like about having more time, being able to comment on other people’s blogs more often.

Marathoning

I have to catch up on KON-!, Eden of The East, 07-Ghost and FMA. I’m only a few episodes behind in each of them, so it shouldn’t be too hard realtively. The thing is, I have a really hard time following anything on a weekly basis. It’s easy with SC or Hetalia, neither of which really has a continuing storyline, but it’s a bit more challenging for shows that go from point A to point B every week. Which brings me to the second point of marathoning: boxsets. I’ve finally started watching the Nanoha boxset I recieved during Christmas, bought the second half of Ouran today, and am getting two more for my birthday (more on that in later post). Which means I’m going to be marathoning quite a bit over the next few days .

Summer Anime

I wanted to write a whole elaborate summer anime post, but it’s a little late for that right now, so I’ll just say what I’m probably watching here. The key word is probably since as I just explained I have low attention span when it comes to weekly shows. Here’s the list:

• Sora no Mani Mani- The manga is super cute from the three chapters that I’ve read so far. All the characters are pretty interesting and well developed. The voice acting is also bound to be good as Mihoshi is voiced by Kanae Itou.
• Taishou Yakyuu Musume- Don’t know much about it other then the fact it’s about a group of girls starting their own baseball team. But it seems really cute- and there’s more Kanae Itou in this. It’s good that she’s acting in a few different roles before SC is over.  That way she’ll be able to continue to get jobs after it’s over.
• Umi Monogatari- Magical girls? And mermaids? Together? It’s like my childhood dream came true. lol. It seems like it will be a fun summer series at the very least. The voice cast is good in this one too.
• Aoi Hana- It’s a well developed yuri series, with realisic characters and storylines. Hopefully JC. Staff will do a good job. Apperantly the director of the Utena OP will be directing Aoi Hana’s OP too, so it will probably be full of awesomeness at least.

And that’s it. I’ll probably watch Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 or if other shows look interesting based on blog entries,but I won’t blog them. I’m not really in any rush to blog any of these series (especially since Fuyu already claimed Sora no Mani Mani for herself), and I mainly plan on just enjoying them.

—-

That’s it for now. There will be a marathon post for the boxsets and one for spring anime sometime next week probably Monday or Tuesday, a birthday post on Saturday, a surprise post sometime in the near future and a  SC 87-88 episode post on Saturday. I was going to blog the episodes seperatly, but decided not to since they’re linked together. One thing I want to get off, my chest before the post is this though. I want to bonk Satelight over the head. The episode was cute and good, and I’m glad they’re finally get Lulu’s turning good out of the way, but I’m still kind of pissed off that they completely messed up Lulu’s character development. Satelight can clearly create good orignal characters for SC. Case and point Yua. But with Lulu it felt like they never really knew what to do with her. It’s just kind of sad. I don’t hate Lulu, but I don’t love her either, and I think if Satelight had put just a bit more work into she might have been a really loveable character. Oh well. Now I don’t have to be a bitch in my post on the episodes later on.

Toutes les infos dans cette news.

Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford in The Big Heat

I told you we’d eventually get to movies on here, so let’s get right to it. A few days ago, I noticed, much to my surprise, that Columbia Pictures was releasing a film noir boxset. Amazon gave no indication of the titles to be included, and a quick Google search yielded only a rumored lineup. After searching Barnes & Noble’s website, it seems to have confirmed the five previously speculated titles: Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame), Edward Dmytryk’s The Sniper, 5 Against the House (Kim Novak), Murder By Contract and Don Siegel’s The Lineup. These will all be packaged in a set called Film Noir Classics of Columbia: The Collector’s Choice, available July 14. Only one of these flicks, The Big Heat, has been available on DVD. Although there are five films, B&N is saying it’s a four piece set. Hmm. Hopefully, we don’t get screwed on the packaging.

Although I cannot confirm this, an IMDb user posted an item a few days ago about these Columbia noir boxsets, saying a second volume will be available the same day. According him/her, it will include Pushover (Fred MacMurray and Kim Novak), Nightfall (Anne Bancroft), The Brothers Rico (Richard Conte), City of Fear and In a Lonely Place (Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame). In a Lonely Place, like The Big Heat, is also currently available. Again, I can’t say one way or another whether this second collection will be released the same day, or if those are the titles.

However, if it goes down like this, might we be seeing a pattern here? Perhaps — assuming there are more collections to come — they will build each collection around one popular noir already in stores and on the shelves. The next one, then, could include Gilda, starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth, or Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai, starring said director and Hayworth. Both of those are also Columbia Classics DVDs. I’m sure sales will play a big part in whether we’ll see more sets in the future, but one can only hope.

This item is a rare 1991 Japanese promo sample limited edition box set for the release of the movie/documentary “The Road To God Knows Where”.

The box includes :

• a 13-track CD (the soundtrack of the movie Ghosts… Of The Civil Dead) in an outer card wrap-around sleeve
• a 23-track NTSC format video (VHS) in a custom fold out card sleeve, with the movie “The Road To God Knows Where” and the music videos of “In The Ghetto”, “The Singer”, “Tupelo”, “The Mercy Seat”, and “Deanna”
• a 159-page softback booklet with 15 pictures, linernotes and the book “King Ink”

Photos of the box set :

box set (front)

box set (side of the box)

box set (cover of the booklet)

box set (limited edition number on the back)

I don’t know how many boxset were produced, but mine is #2585, so I guess there was at least 3000.

Photos from the booklet :

booklet photo 1

booklet photo 2

booklet photo 3

booklet photo 4

Digimon fans, rejoice! A legal boxset of season five, Digimon Data Squad (the English Digimon Savers dub), will become available online on May 26 through retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. You can pre-order it now on all three sites. The set contains three disks with the first thirteen episodes: “There are Monsters Among Us” to “The Rise of RizeGreymon.” And since it’s labeled “Collection One,” we can expect at least two or three more volumes soon to complete the series.

Besides the English version of Digimon RPG, this might be some of the best Digimon news I’ve heard in a while. While Digimon Data Squad is not my favorite season, it still has its charms, and I am definitely going to buy these DVDs. Plus, it’s about time someone released a real Digimon boxset, instead of the bootlegs floating around. (Do these season one and season two covers look familiar?)

An Amazon user wrote a review of the boxset that ruffled me up a little, so I want to say a few words about the dub versus original “debate.” I’ll speak more about it later, but to summarize, fans should watch what they like. If you like the Japanese version more, fine, but don’t tell the rest of us what to watch. Not everyone thinks dubs are horrible. Personally, I prefer the Digimon dub. The original actually bores me. Does that mean I’m childish just because the dub is marketed towards children? No. It simply means the dub interests me in a way that the original does not. Bottom line. Whatever that appeal is, it isn’t necessarily the same as it is for a younger fan. There are shows I would rather watch the Japanese version of than the English version—Tokyo Mew Mew is an example—but it’s not a quality issue but a taste issue. Everyone have different tastes. That’s what being an individual is about.

That said, back to the point.

If you’re a fan of the show, please buy this boxset. If it’s popular enough, Disney might…might…decide to release not only the rest of this season but the other four as well. What a collection that would be!