Untested ideas

A freshly tested idea

Q: If a left-handed person plays guitar right-handed for several years, and then switches over to play left-handed, will his right hand be able to take advantage of the left hand's skill at fretting?

A: No. It will flop around like a handful of eel sushi.

Notoriety

Well, it's nice to finally get some attention, I guess. I wish the authors had done a bit of research first.

Signs of the season

Just like home.

Nico Suave

Shadow of the Colossus feels like a research prototype of an absolutely world-beating RPG.

Also, big walking things

In most ways Howl's Moving Castle and War of the Worlds are very different films, but they share a couple of distinctive features; first, a presumably timely obsession with war and mass destruction; second, an unabashed determination to have things Come Right in the end, without excessive respect to consistency or narrative logic. (Yes, the fate of the Cthulhu-Martians was there in the novel, but the scenes before and after it belong to a much more upbeat movie.)

I assume Spielberg and Miyazaki are trying to keep our spirits up. I still can't help being reminded of the end of Brazil.

Revenge of the Sith

It was a groovy silent film. Pity they had to put dialogue into it.

Thesis II

The Expanded Universe relates to the original Star Wars trilogy in much the same way Dungeons & Dragons relates to Lord of the Rings. (I'm told Star Wars actually makes a better setting for role-playing.)

Ghiblimania

Apparently Howl's Moving Castle is playing in France right now. Of all the times not to have my passport up to date...

Metal and whiskey

It occurs to me that, from a point of view, Metallica in the pre-Black Album era was basically a folk band; they produced straightforward recordings of easily transcribable songs, and owed much of their popularity to fans who liked to play those songs. It also occurs to me that by the same standard, Iron and Wine is not a folk band, but a pop band working in a folk style; "Radio War", to pick an example, is a beautiful recording, but I have trouble imagining my parents sitting down in the living room and harmonizing on it.

On the other hand, my parents aren't big indie-rock listeners anyway, so that might not prove anything.