I'm a doll, I'm a witch, I'm a peach, I'm a bitch

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Haven't used this journal in centuries, but I needed someplace to put this, so here we are ...

I just returned from seeing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey for the first time. I chose purposefully to see it in 48 frames per second. This is what Peter Jackson recommended and I was curious to see how it turned out. I have read many, many criticisms of the technique and so went in with those in mind.

I have to say I was very intrigued and satisfied with effect of the frame rate. I have a few quibbles with other aspects of the film (length/pacing -- though it wasn't actually too bad for this first part, I'm more concerned with how the pacing of the next two is going to be). But HFR? Honestly, I loved it for a number of reasons, including several specific to The Hobbit/LOTR, as well as a general "this feels like the future of cinema" feeling.

First, let me address the criticisms I've seen of The Hobbit's use of HFR.

1. It looks cheap and amateurish. I've seen it compared to news reporting, video games, soap operas, and the one comparison I actually feel is merited, a BBC stage set period drama.

2. It is not suited to a fantasy film, because it is too realistic.

3. It makes the CGI look crap.

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YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAH BUY CDS FROM MEEEE. Tomorrow I am going to Newbury Comics to try sell the ones I don't sell here. :(


NOOOO

They are $5 each, and if you buy 3 or more I will take $3 off the total :) US Shipping (first class) is $3.50 for 1-2 CDs $4.00 for 3+ and includes delivery confirmation. International shipping (first class) is $4.00/$4.50 but no delivery confirmation :(

BJORK The Music from Drawing Restraint 9
BJORK Volta
BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga
BRIGHT EYES Fevers and Mirrors ($4 - NO SLEEVE NOTES)
CHARLOTTE MARTIN On Your Shore
CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SAY YEAH s/t
DOES IT OFFEND YOU YEAH? You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
GOGOL BORDELLO Super Taranta!
THE GOTHIC ARCHIES The Tragic Treasury
LADY GAGA The Fame Monster
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS 69 Love Songs Vol 2
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS 69 Love Songs Vol 3
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS Realism
THE MARS VOLTA Frances the Mute
MARTHA WAINWRIGHT s/t
MODEST MOUSE The Ship Even Sank
NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL On Avery Island
OF MONTREAL Skeletal Lamping
THE RACONTEURS Broken Boy Soldiers
SILVERSUN PICKUPS Swoon
THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
YEAH YEAH YEAHS Fever to Tell
YEAH YEAH YEAHS It's Blitz!

ALSO SOME ORPHANED CDS WITH NO CASES FOR $3 ... I'll put them in a blank case ....

ANI DIFRANCO The First Album
ANI DIFRANCO To The Teeth
COLDPLAY A Rush of Blood to the Head
OVER THE RHINE Drunkard's Prayer

Every time I update this I have grand plans to organize it better but I'm quickly overwhelmed. So it's still a monkey mess.

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PLEASE BUY BOOKS FROM MEEEEEE



THANK YOU

Most of these are books I bought and never read, because I have a serious problem, or books I inexplicably have more than one copy of (both of these situations occur easily when you are in grad school), or that I have read and no longer need/want. I have helpfully divided them into categories which probably only make sense if you are me. Most of them are paperback but if they're hardcover I've noted it.

I'm not really sure how to calculate shipping, but let's try: start at $3 for US shipping for one book, add 50 cents for each additional book? Does that seem fair? For international I have to think about it a bit.

Whatever I can't sell here I guess I will try to sell on Amazon or in person for whatever I can get. D:

ALSO if you have any questions about any of these books (more details about the condition, if it's a collection of essays or a monograph) please do ask.

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CONCLUSION: I HAVE TOO MANY BOOKS

I still have to go through the rest of my DVDs, not to mention my books. D: ftw302 suggested I try selling them here before I go and subject myself to eBay or selling them to stores that'll give me like 50 cents per album phhhhht

I'm selling these for $6 $5 each, with $2 shipping. They all have cases and sleevenotes, some of them are still in plastic, unopened, because I have a problem with buying things. -_- Email me if you are interested~ gyabou @ gmail

Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun sold pending
Bjork - Volta
Bjork - Drawing Restraint 9 (This is the score to a Matthew Barney film)
Silversun Pickups - Swoon
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Martha Wainwright - s/t
Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
M. I. A. - Kala sold pending
Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah - s/t
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Modest Mouse - The Ship Even Sank
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute

The Mighty Boosh
x 16 Noel & Julian

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Sorry, it's another post about Umineko. But this time I'm not just talking to myself about it. XD So, obviously, I passionately love this series -- almost as much as I love the Boosh. It has a powerful hold over me, and has pretty much everything I love about a series - magic! humor! mind-fuckery! wonderful music! It's had a big impact on me and my writing (not just "Life on Mars" which is directly inspired by it, but "Anamnesia" as well.)

However, I've never seriously attempted to get my friends to play this game. I would love it if people did, but the reason I never bugged them about it the way I might with other things is that it was really just too difficult to install the game for me to feel like it was okay to encourage it.

This however has changed. :) It is now possible to easily and legally download and install the game and the patch in just a few steps. And SO NOW I MAKE MY MOVE ... to convince you to give Umineko a try!

FIRST OF ALL, you can try out the game by downloading the free demo. The demo is, in fact, the entire first episode, "Legend of the Golden Witch". Umineko is an episodic visual novel series. Each episode is about the length of a 400 page novel. It's longer than Harry Potter. :/ The eighth and final installment is due to be released in Japan this month, though it will take longer to translate.

The demo and its translation patch can be downloaded here. It's about 350mb and there's a PC and a Mac version. You extract the game and then put the patch in folder named "umineko". (I tried it out this morning. It's that easy.)

Okay. Now that that's out of the way, behind the cut here is some information about what Umineko is and what's it about.

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I can't really make much more of an argument for this game -- it's a hard story to sell. I might say "watch a few episodes of the anime" but honestly, despite having better art than the game, it really is a lackluster adaptation which leaves out far too many clues to make the mystery engaging, and often misses the point on some of the story's most moving aspects.

JUST ... GIVE IT A TRY! On some rainy day, when you want a good mystery to dizzy your head with, or a magical world to get lost in -- you'll find both in Umineko.

I've been meaning to make this for a few days but it still makes me so sad. :( I really can't believe. But I just read a full translation of his last letter, which was posted to his official site after his death from pancreatic cancer was announced, and oh my god, it made me bawl. So horrible.

http://www.makikoitoh.com/journal/…

The part about his unfinished work especially killed me:

My biggest regret is the film "Dreaming Machine". I'm worried not only about the film itself, but the staff who I was able to work with on the film. After all, there's a strong possibility that the storyboards that were created by (our) blood, sweat and tears will never be seen. This is because Satoshi Kon put his arms around the original story, the script, the characters and the settings, the sketches, the music...every single image. Of course there are things that I shared with the animation director, the art director and other staff, but basically most of the work can only be understood by Satoshi Kon. It's easy to say that it was my fault for arranging things this way, but from my point of view I made every effort to share my vision with others. However, in my current state I can only feel deep remorse for my inadequacies in these areas. I am really sorry to all of the staff. However, I want them to understand, if only a little bit. Satoshi Kon was "that kind of guy", and, that's why he was able to make rather weird anime that was a bit different. I know this is a selfish excuse, but think of my cancer and please forgive me.

I haven't been idly waiting for death, even now I'm thinking with my weak brain of ways to let the work live even after I am gone. But they are all shallow ideas. When I told Maruyama-san about my concerns about "Dreaming Machine", he just said "Don't worry. We'll figure out something, so don't worry."

I wept.

I wept uncontrollably.

Even with my previous movies, I've been so irresponsible with the productions and the budgets, but I always had Maruyama-san figure it out for me in the end.

This time is no different. I really haven't changed.

:(

I was listening to the soundtrack to "Millenium Actress" (which seriously, after Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", ranks as my second favorite film of all time) while I was studying, and when "Actress in Time Layers" came on I had to stop because I couldn't stop picturing that incredibly intense and amazing scene from the movie, probably some of the coolest 8 minutes ever animated.

(Spoilers for the movie)

I stumbled across this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/A-Let…

The content of the article itself isn't really noteworthy -- basically it is a PhD student's response to the message "don't go to graduate school in the humanities!" which is increasingly being spread. To be honest, her response is quite naive, particularly for someone who has gotten as far as a PhD -- but as Dorothea Salo said on her "Straight Talk about Graduate School" website, when you get deep into a graduate degree, a sort of delusion sets in. You get "grad school brain" and it's hard to think about the world without applying the weird way of framing life that you pick up in grad school to it.

No, the really interesting thing is the comments. OMG, it is apocalyptic, in some cases, literally.

Example 1:
Much as I wish it were true, #1, most graduates from my department never work in their fields, despite impressive resumes. Their searches included the broadest scope imaginable - public, private, online, corporations, non-profit enterprises, the works. Yes, they eventually got jobs of some sort, but nothing that required much above a bachelor's degree. In many cases, the PhD is actually a liability ("oh, we'd really like to hire you, but we know you won't stay..."). It's also very hard for unaffiliated people to publish and do research. Thus, a year or two out of grad school means that the chances of being part of the profession, let alone the academy, drop dramatically.

Example 2:
Yes please let's stop perpetuating the idea that librarianship will be the savior of academics looking for work. I hear this advice frequently. There will be no mass retirement of librarians any sooner than there will be of professors. Like laura012345 said - the American Library Association promised new graduate students a 'graying of the profession' when I began my program in 2002 and it is yet to happen. Furthermore, positions in academic libraries (where, I presume, many would-be professors would like to end up) are not proliferating. All this and the fact that being a librarian, while linked to other academic work, is vastly different that being a professor.

Example 3:
I can only say that Ms. Polak has little idea of what awaits her. As to whether there are alternative careers open to Ph.D's in the humanities. The short answer is no. It is not a question of the qualifications or the welcome interest that Ph.D's in the humanities would have for non-academic work. The reality is that no HR Office and no one outside of the University has any interest in giving any Ph.D in the humanities any opportunity. By the time Ph.D's earn their degree they are off the career track for most entry level positions. In addition, universities refuse to consider Ph.D's for the many staff positions that do not require Ph.D's in academic affairs and other support services at the university. In fact, many of the staff positions that require no teaching and no research pay much more money than adjunct positions.

Example 4 (my favorite):
It's quaint that people are talking about the future as if it's going to involve anything other than universal famine, misery, and warfare. Peak oil, climate change, and water depletion are coming to a head at the same time, and any one of those things on its own is enough to decimate food production.

It might have escaped general notice, but at this very moment we're in a mass extinction event at least as bad as the one that ended the dinosaurs. The idea that we're going to carry on in the midst of all this and continue to argue about Lacan is ludicrous.

(Oooh Crikey!)

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While many of these are quite melodramatic, there is at least kernel, if not more, of truth to them. I do wish I had never gone to graduate school. At times I've thought "I wish I had least gone for something normal, like an English MA" but let's be honest here: I should probably not have gone, at all. I am more or less a casebook study of what many of these comments talk about, right down to getting outdated advice from a trusted mentor from a more halcyon generation.

Perhaps going to Library School right now is just delaying the inevitable, but at least there will be a delay, and maybe I will manage to find a boring but paying job during that delay! It ain't happening right now, that's for sure. Hell, Danielle just told me on Twitter today that, for example, Barnes & Noble doesn't like to hire people with MA degrees, not because we're "overqualified", but because they prefer to hire kids in undergrad whom they can more easily mold to ascribe to their corporate philosophy, rather than bring in dangerous new ideas or independent thought. And I never thought about it that way, but of course that's the case. Of course.