Ninja Protectors!

Hey, I’m throwing in the copyright infringement flag… Anybody listening? I didn’t think so, but hear me out all the same.

The other day I was reading that “Rain” (Korean pop phenom… whatever) is going to be starring in an upcoming film entitled Ninja Assassin. Well I’m here to assert that this film is little more than a thinly veiled re-make of an earlier cult classic — the definitive work of the genre! Check the record, buddy: Ninja Protectors! was shot 25 years ago and has just been taken out of the vault for remastering and re-release as a special, “silver anniversary” collector edition. See for yourself:

My people will be calling.

(larger version on Google Video)

Battle gratitude

You have to admire (and, at times, tremble before) the depth and complexity of reciprocal thanking in Japanese culture.

Sometime last year I asked a favor of Yumi’s mixi friend Daijiro. (They found each other on the Japanese social-networking site through happenstance, each having the same last name.) He’s an artist by trade and I’ve always enjoyed the work he posts, so I asked if he wouldn’t mind doing a couple of quick logo mock-ups for me. Daijiro was more than happy — downright enthusiastic is more like it — to get on board and pretty soon I had a whole slew of graphics flooding my in-box.

I wanted to send Daijiro a thank-you gift but had a hell of a time trying to buy a gift certificate from the U.S. that could be redeemed in Japan. I thought he might appreciate some music from the U.S. iTunes store (since he’s a musician and avid music lover, not to mention that songs available for purchase through iTunes are different depending on where you live). After a bit of sniffing around I discovered how to circumvent the system, and soon had an iTunes gift card in the mail to Japan.

A few days passed, we went to Maui with Yumi’s mom, and upon our return Yumi had this super sweet manga-of-appreciation awaiting in her email. How cool is that? The only thing now is I have to consider how far I’m willing to carry out this “battle gratitude”, a veritable tit-for-tat of indebtedness. But who am I kidding? I’m culturally outgunned and don’t stand a chance.

That’s why they pay ‘em the big bucks

From a story on CNN.com, “Officials: U.S. to try to shoot down errant satellite“:

Experts said that with three-quarters of Earth covered in water, there’s a 25 percent chance the satellite’s remnants will hit land.

Gee, you think?

Dave Fogeybeard or How I Yearned to Stop Growing and Shave the Beard

This Dan Fogelberg album cover creeped me out just enough to take action. (No comment on why I would have been looking at a Dan Fogelberg album in the first place.)

Fighting the future of terrorism, brick-by-brick

Taken from the Honolulu advertiser; Saturday, December 22, 2007. Photo caption:

A Chinese soldier smashes bricks on a colleague’s head in a qigong performance at the China-India Joint Anti-Terrorism Training code-named “Hand-in-hand 2007,” the first war games involving Chinese and Indian troops, in Kunming, Yunnan Province. The nine-day drill started on Wednesday.

This photo cries out for so many wise-cracks that I’m not even going to say anything…

Dare to think big

This week I’ve been scanning some old slides that I keep in an old box got off an O’Neil jobsite. The box caught my attention this time around because of the CompUSA tag on it (as that old dog among tech retailers announced this week it’s going out of business). But there’s more. The box originally housed a backup tape drive — the “Jumbo 250″ — circa 1993. 250 Gigabytes, you might ask? Try decimating that number by — well, by a tenth. That’s right: 250 MEGA bytes — a data-devouring black hole of metallic-coated, inexhaustible potential . “My god,” we must have thought in those simpler, smaller times.  “There’s no way in hell we’ll ever fill it…”

“SCTV now begins its programming day…”

I see that YouTube now has some videos posted from season 6 of SCTV (though there’s no guarantee how long they’ll remain there). From 1983–1984, the final season of SCTV aired on Cinemax and went by (the rather awkward) “SCTV Channel”. Being that we were Cinemax subscribers at the time, my brother and I got into the show and taped a bunch of episodes (on Betamax tapes, no less). A healthy chunk of our inside jokes and cultural-references come from bits taken from these episodes, so it’s been fun watching them again. I don’t know if this season will ever see release on DVD or not, so for now this might be your best bet.

As an aside, I love the VCR tracking lines that show up on the vids. Feels just like I’m back home on the couch with that clunky remote in my hand. (link)

Parties in olden tymes

Hilarious video from funnyman Dave Hill. In this episode Dave takes us inside the Actor’s Movement Studio, illustrating the proper technique for rolling, bowing before a king, and taking a hit of snuff. Good stuff, indeed.