An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla

Biochem COENZYMIZED

Do you believe in the Philadelphia Experiment?

“Sure,” she said without hesitation. “I don’t know if it went down the way it does in those books of yours, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the government was trying to cover up something.”

What about UFOs?

“Sure…Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster. I believe in all of that shit.”

“The only thing I don’t really believe in is all that stuff about different dimensions and frequencies. That’s a little too far out.”

And this coming from someone who owns a TV set. Who owns a radio.

About the only thing that makes sense to me are dimensions and frequencies…

broadcasttext inc

I bought myself a new DVD Recorder: a pretty bad ass Sony one with a built in VHS deck to help make dubbing all these stupid old tapes E-Z.

I spent the first 1/4th of the year making DVDs on my PC, tricking them out with menus and stuff. Doing it this way should be like making Pop Tarts instead of slaving over Thanksgiving dinner.

Unfortunately, after much experimentation, it seems like the finished discs look better if I use a seperate VCR and send the signal through my *really geeky* TBC-1000 Time Base Corrector. Otherwise, the shit on this DVD/VCR combo comes out a little too sharp for my taste.

Making DVDs brings out the nagging, uptight perfectionist in me. Somewhere out there is the perfect wave, the perfectly rolled joint. Let the surfers and stoners have them. I want to make the perfect disc, even if that means spending the next couple of days trying different settings, cables, equiptment, and generally just being a hermit.

Almost forgot I have to write something fast for Figure Oh, before Jan. 1st, but I’m just not feeling it …maybe because it’s impossible to generate any sort of psychic energy now. Japan is shut down already because of New Years, and the US is just warming up for it. And besides, I’m fighting a cold, manifest right now as a really inconclusive sore throat. Tempted to get some beers, but then I’ll never get this ding-dong article done.

Maybe if it all falls through, I could start over as a video engineer. I think I'd like that a lot.

Nushka V. Mandrile reads books about UFOs

Wow. I made the Arts section of the New York Times on Tues/28. Dave Kehr reviewed the Sonny Chiba Collection DVDs from Ventura Select  and name checked me, actually saying he was" indebted" to me for my liner notes that come with the discs. The link to the write up to this pleasing bit of press is here , but you know the drill with the NYT…you got to register first. Drag city.

What’s really nutty is that the company I work for, Viz LLC, also made the Times that day for all the girly manga they publish. They’re on page B1 and I’m lurking on B7.

Anyway, the January issue of The Library Journal reviewed Anime City. Here's an excerpt:

“Pop culture writer Macias and journalist Machiyama navigate Tokyo with dry humor and cultural insight-and with an eye out for the dirty bits along the way.”

I thought they were going to go after us for being a couple of filth mongers (which someone will eventually, no doubt), but they really liked the book ending on the exclamation that the whole thing is  “fun, fun, fun!” causing Stone Bridge publisher Peter Goodman to ask "Has Library Journal EVER described a book as fun, fun, fun?”

Guess not, but I seem to recall that’s how Tom Baker described playing Dr. Who.   

Episode#43 "Burning Pride, Your Name is Wild!"

My new book Cruising the Anime City: An Otaku Guide to Neo-Tokyo is officially a best seller in Japan (of all places, right?). Yahoo! Japan picked up the review of the book from Wired News  and soon we hit number 27 on the Amazon.jp sales ranking.

The book is also getting a lot of mentions on Japanese blogs and message boards…and not all of it flattering. One guy took offense at my joke about Tokyo being “an eternal thought in the mind of Godzilla,” and tried to prove how it wasn’t. Apparently, he never considered that I was making a funny.

Anyway, thanks to Chris Baker of Wired who went un-credited when Yahoo! Japan ran his story.

Meanwhile, Mark2 is telling me to report that the ER believes that the recent 9.0 magnitude earthquake in Southeast Asia stems from an unsuccessful attempt by the Letter People at inducing a polar shift using the Earth’s electro-magnetic field. And people say I’m paranoid…

Counter ESPY in the Apiary

Why, and why now?

Well, the two founding members of the ER, Mark and Jason, have insisted I start doing a blog...something I once swore I'd never, ever do. Not because I wouldn’t love to tell you all about me, my hobbies, my favorite music, and a lot of stuff about my childhood (for a change), but because I really feel like my time could be better spent elsewhere... writing about the Espionage Rejects namely, and trying to solve the mystery of what it was that really led to the destruction of the Sacramento Pocket Area  suburbs.

Ever since Mark and Jason saw the scar on my forehead, acquired from a fall off a bridge when I was two, I guess they felt like they could trust me. Even though I never had anything to do with the ESPY program, and certainly never was up for consideration in the ER (at least, not to my knowledge), we all know a thing or two about head trauma. Plus, we all grew up in Sacramento and went to the same schools. And when they found out I’d gone pro as a writer after dropping out, that really sealed it. They were going to talk, I was going to write it down. 

What I didn't know is that I'd also have to do what they say or else they'd threaten me with silence.  I've got half a mind to take them  up on the offer right about now. But I also know that  this whole business  with the ER, the Letter People, Counter-ESPY, Progressive Rejects, and everyone else that's worth mentioning is  a lot bigger than me. Heck, it concerns all of us.

But the quesion remains: why now? My guess is because the UN investigation of Greenhaven is due to start next year, amidst alarmingly little interest or fanfare. Also, even though we haven't talked about it,  I get the feeling that the ER didn’t want the obscurity of the Overtones  to be their final dwelling place. Yes, even Jason, who's only slightly less cryptic than the staircases in the Winchester Mystery House .

But enough about the "Espionage Sleestaks,"as Dave Boring used to call them. I also write about Japan, movies, anime, and stuff like that. I even have a few books out (real ones).  I'm going to gamble on the ER not even going on-line very much, so I'm going to try and post about other stuff until I get caught.

Hey, I promised them a blog and they never said it ALL had to be about the ER...

So here goes...