I love travel documentaries, especially British ones.  Michael Palin of Monty Python has a large series of them starting with "Around the World in 80 Days" where he attempts to recreate the journey of Phileas Fogg, circumnavigating the globe by land and sea.  I've been a big fan of Monty Python since I was very little so watching Palin sort of feels like watching an old friend or distant uncle.  His most recent documentary is "New Europe", in which he tours around several European countries, visiting rare spots, talking to locals and sampling the food, and it's just so much fun to see all the little restaurants and places that you probably wouldn't get to see even if you were to visit these countries yourself.

One show I really wish we had available here is the Japanese "Sekai Fureai Machi Aruki" (Walk the Town and Meet the World), shot in first person with a steadicam as if you are walking through each city.  A voice over speaks to the people encountered on the trip as we get to see the insides of various small shops and restaurants and famous locations, and it has a wonderfully nostalgic feeling that Japanese people seem to love (sort of Ghibliesque in a way).  I love walking tours and used to occasionally watch this show at Aya's house, but unfortunately it's almost impossible to find online except in small bits.  

Here's a 5 minute preview of one episode:

Watch sekai fureai machiaruki (hamburg) in Travel & Culture  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

John Adams: ...the test ahead of us is an exceptionally difficult one.

Cinque:  We won’t be going in there alone…

Adams: Indeed not, no, we will have right on our side, we will have righteousness at our side…

Cinque: I meant my ancestors. I will call into the past, far into the beginning of time, and beg them to help me at the judgment. I will reach back and draw them into me. And they must come…for at this moment I am the whole reason they have existed at all.

Date:	2011-11-23 14:56
Subject:
Security:	Public
Mood:	secretive

Friends onry

Hausu. I just finished watching it at the recommendation of Crystal, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's sort of like the Japanese Rocky Horror, incredibly campy and equally fun.

I was taken with several of the actresses and looked them up after the movie. It's strange thinking about how these girls were unknowns, had never been in a film before and are now women of 50+ living in relative obscurity, their youthful energy and beauty instantly revitalized whenever someone watches their films. I felt pangs of nostalgia and a sudden sense of desperation when I was looking through their Google image results; youth lasts for an instant. Seeing their faces as older women surprised me, seeing them as young girls in the movie and then suddenly aged made me feel strange, like a cryogenically frozen man recently unthawed seeing the aged face of his girlfriend he had just seen the night before.

These thoughts come to me often. The years pass by quicker and quicker, and while we are still young, it won't last for much longer. I feel wistful whenever I remember that someday my friends and I will look back at these years, "Do you remember 2011? That one convention, what was it, Fanime? I remember we all had such a great time." When all that remains of our youth is what we can see from our energetic faces and bodies recorded in the photos we've taken together.

Life is too short.

I got owned by my forgetfulness today.  I rented an anime film from Netflix called Origin: Spirits of the Past - which based on the description (Post apocalyptic Earth, plants are now the worlds most intelligent life form, girl from the past awakens from stasis etc etc) seemed pretty interesting, and the opening sequence which I saw on youtube was pretty cool.  About 3 minutes after the introduction everything started to seem a little to familiar, and about 10 minutes in I started to wonder if I'd seen the movie before. 

( Spiritis of the Blah )

During my nap I dreamed I was out in front of my house, taking photos with a telephoto lens.  I started seeing a bunch of cool far off stuff that I could never see before, including a group of large yellow snakes in a tree overlooking a lake.

"Whoah, I've never seen snakes around here before, especially big ones like that." 

Then for some reason I sensed that if those were there, then maybe there were more around close by, so lowered my camera and turned around, and slithering down the giant tree in my front yard (which doesn't actually exist) was a huge anaconda ala from the movie Anaconda, and Nigel   was being his little dumb self and stalking the monster snake's tale which was moving up the tree trunk as it's head was coming down to eat little bige.  So I ran over and scooped him up, hopped over my gate, ran inside the garage and closed the doggy door. 

Then I woke up and disappointment slowly set in as I realized that I didn't actually take a bunch of cool photos of snakes.  And Nigel doesn't even live with me anymore!

This song is too good and makes me want to watch everything from the 80's

Sweet Streets II art/fashion show...

Too tired to resize all of them now, but here's a couple.



Check it out under the cut.

( Woo. )

Anybody playing the Final Fantasy XIV open beta?  

Do any of you guys have a tumblr account?  If so, let me know and I'll follow you.  Mine is here

Wangaow!

Went to the Cars and Coffee meet this morning with Marc and my old friend from elementary school Alex.



For something thats put on every saturday, they had a huuuuuge variety of cars o_o

( Only a fraction... )

Cars and Coffee meet in Irvine tomorrow! woo! 

Whenever I go back and read my early LJ entries I always feel a weird combo of nostalgia and being weirded out.

I also can't believe I've been living in Fullerton for 3 years.  So many things have happened since then, but it feels like barely any time has passed... 

I'm looking forward to the future :)

I went to AX this year expecting to be disappointed, but I had a great time!  I don't think it can compare to the AXs of the past, but I definitely left looking forward to coming back next year.

I had sort of lost my motivation to go to anime cons for a while this year, but just meeting all the people I did this year and seeing all the old friends I hadn't spoke with in forever made me want to go to all the cons I can again :D  
 

Thank you to Joey (Looks like the fabled 2 man combo will be hitting cons again together like the old days), and everyone else that hung out with me (esp. Kammie, Michael, Aya, Cindy and Nat)


SEE YOU AT COMIC-CON, MUHFUGGUHS

Aww, thats pretty cute, you gotta admit.

Last night was awesome

My Wii friend number:

0151 1008 5532 0974

Give me yours!