Lancer Kind

A wonderful anime called Speed Grapher is about a Tokyo where money buys you anything you wish. The rich use it to enjoy all the forbidden pleasures in a secret club for elites (like the Horned Society, in Eyes Wide Shut although if you’re looking for that type of anime you’d be better off going to www.animehentaivideos.xxx). The protagonist, Tatsumi Saiga, is a former war photographer who found secret joy in capturing the perfect moment (it gave him an erection), often at the moment of his subject’s death (a perfect character flaw in a story about taboo pleasures).

Apparently, a large number of anime stories deal with sexual matters in an intriguing way. If you are fascinated by this more adult side of anime, then websites such as https://www.cartoonporno.xxx/ might be of interest to you. Ultimately, the Hentai industry is a growing and unpredictable scene, and adult anime content is enjoyed by large numbers of people all over the world. No surprise why there is an increase in adult-oriented merchandise as well, like see this anime body pillow, for instance, that can with its soft and curvy structure give warmth and comfort to anyone, no matter they are an anime fan or not. Such products seem to have become increasingly popular with the rise in the number of people with a love for anime.

However, the man behind the forbidden club is Choji Suitengu, a character who quietly illustrates his conspicuous consumption by smoking cigarettes wrapped with 10,000 yen bills. Later we find out that he is just another victim trying to change the system but in less moral ways.

What this anime does so well (to the point of some critics deciding the characters aren’t likable) is constantly focus on the horrors of a trickle-down economics society where having enough money allows you to create wars for even more profit. In trickle down economics, the guys in control of the faucet always win.

We see this when Saiga talks ells Kagura about the wars he has seen that didn’t make any sense to the people doing the fighting, but did make sense to those ordering the fighting or supplying the equipment. We see this when we find out Suitengu’s father was killed due to owing debts to a politician, who then pressed Suitengu into the military to cover his father’s debts. And we see this at the end, when Ginza is trying to out the corruption but everywhere she turns, she finds that the levels above her are beholden to the secret society in some way.

The Activist SF Test

One of the tests that I use in determining if something is Activist SF, is if it portrays to the audience actionable steps that an audience member actually do. IE, getting a battle mech isn’t an actionable solution. Getting a tank or an attack isn’t likely in the cards either, but exposing the problem to society, or to the authorities despite adversity, or organizing a resistance are actionable.

Exposing the problem: Throughout Speed Grapher, it exposes how government officials, police chiefs, media outlets, and corporations can support each other as oppressive forces, which I don’t think is big news. But tying together how corrupt elements use war for profiteering isn’t well understood so Speed Grapher does bring this to our attention.

Portraying activism: Speed Grapher shows how to take action through the organization of the White Knights. This episode focuses on Joe the non-fic writer who isn’t sure he has the courage to out the elite’s connections to the secret club. Saiga works with his newspaper, or finds experts to help figure out what is happening.

Check out Speed Grapher. As an American, you won’t feel emotional ownership of the corrupt officials, but through out, you’ll enjoy the humanist story about Saiga’s work as a photographer, and how a simple photo can make a difference.

Don’t be scared, there really isn’t a bigfoot staring at you from the monitor, it’s just a picture.

You can learn more about the troubles this podiatricly complicated fellow has to go through this Saturday at 7PM, Jan 31st.  I will do a reading at Tullys in the Bella Bottega shopping center at 8862 161st Ave NE, Redmond.  The reading is part of Redmond Association of SPokenword (RASP). Richard Gold is the featured artist.

What does my reading have to do with bigfoot?  I’ll be reading a story of mine, “Get the Girl?”  It’s about a young married couple, Dustin and Amber, whose car breaks down in the middle of a forest.  Amber and Dustin haven’t been getting along in a while and she picks on him until he decides to take a hike.  As he walks, he re-evaluates his life and has a run-in with a bigfoot.

I’m also bringing a small stock of my books to sell which will save you on shipping.

The 1961 film Fahrenheit 451 was recently on the TV and I was struck by how modern it felt.

In fact, it featured a monorail that was superior to the one constructed for the 1962 World’s Fair held in Seattle.

One of the biggest controversies about building mass transit is where the stops should be. Naturally, there is a lot at stake for businesses and home owners who would benefit if there is easy access to catching a ride.

What was unique about the monorail in the Fahrenheit film, constructed at Saran France by SAFEGE in 1959, was that the car was suspended from the monorail so passengers could exit via a ramp reaching from the bottom. In reality, this feature was used as an emergency exit and can be seen in a variety of public commute facilities as well as commercial complexes that support high mobility today. They have all the necessary elements like floor plan, signage (more about these details here), equipment etc in place for fire and safety compliance. In the movie, however, the same feature was used as the means for boarding and disembarking.

Unfortunately, the track has been dismantled. It’s amazing to me that this system seems superior in that it supports the ability to stop at any point on the track where today, the Seattle monorail only has two stops, one at each end of the track. It’s odd how a 1961 film is like a documentary about what was better in the past. Like a comedian recently said, he enjoys telling youths that the SF films from the ’80s are documentaries about what life was like, that the flying cars were great for a while but were too much trouble in the end. 🙂

If disembarkation doesn’t require a platform, the system is like a bus that can stop anywhere, thus not requiring all the up-front planning and design that goes into a usual train system. If you find one location doesn’t work well as a stop, you just move the mono-rail sign elsewhere and stop there!

Potential negatives: no escalator but most people need the exercise anyway. If you really want them, you could still build some elevated stops (handicap access would be nice). I bet some slick Japanese engineer out there (hey, that’s where origami came from) could probably design moving stairs that can be raised and lowered.

It turns out there are operational “upside down” monorails in Japan. Here is the one in Chiba, which is near Tokyo:

And the Shonan monorail:

Apparently there are a slew of all kinds of monorails in Japan. There’s even a Monorail Society that documents monorails from around the world and they sell dvds. Maybe now that we have a U.S. president that can string together intelligent words, we can get some good national infrastructure built. It would be too bad to disappoint all those people from the ’60s by saying that the monorails were like the flying car’s, that we couldn’t make it happen.

It’s the least we could do after making those nice people watch years of Leave it to Beaver.

Ever since Honolulu Hottie got honorable mention, I’ve been obsessing about what story to send for next time.  The contest happens quarterly, so I have four months to select the story which will put me over the top.

I’ve been staring at my “inventory” of stories (I have the titles written on stickies and posted on the wall), but deciding which one is tough.  I’m convinced that either they are all great or they are all of the same low quality.  😉  So now I’m considering ways to raise my game.  Maybe I need go “metaphysical” (meta has to be better, right?) such as a ouija board or maybe dripping candle wax over some manuscripts and see if I can devine the face of L. Ron Hubbard in the splatter.

Meanwhile, I’ll find a place to hang the certificate.

Now that I’ve been staring at the certificate for a while, I’ve noticed there is this gold pen in the center.  Suppose I rig the certificate to a bottle with the pen pointing outward, set the manuscripts around it, and give it a spin, and let Mr. Hubbard decide?

Naturally, China has done a lot of great things.  They have the great wall.

They’ve recently hosted the Olympics.

They allow one to get a latte in a place once known as the “Forbidden City”.

In Hangzou, I saw an amazing outdoor show with people dancing on a lake.  It was amazing seeing a cast of at least 200 performing on/in water.

Things are really moving along nicely in this authoritarian country.  In fact, China is the home of the world’s coolest train.  An honest to goodness levitating train!

Notice what the sign says above my head.

For $15 you can ride it from a Shanghai suburb to the airport and reach 430 kilometers/hour (266 mph).  It was fast, smooth, and awesome!

In Hong Kong, the ENTIRE city across two islands is rigged to do a laser/light/music show every 6PM, more impressive than the celebration at the end of Return of the Jedi.  Once again, real life trumps fiction.  Amazing!

Where else other than China would you get to see such creative translations?

A sign at the top of a 14 story building.

But doesn’t everyone know that trying to throw the Thing is 不好? (not ok)