Tenchi Muyo! GXP

Tenchi Muyo! GXP is one of the funniest anime series out there. Seina Yamada is a very clumsy unlucky Japanese teenager who finds himself recruited by the galaxy police to protect the intergalactic mail from pirates. However, Seina finds out that he needs protecting from the multiple love interests that he has in the series. It's funny how just about every female character is drawn to Seina, through no prompting of his own.

The rest of the story is an interesting narrative built around Seina's misfortune and his equal ability to attract trouble. That tied in with the devotion of his mostly female crew make for some very comedic situations.

I guess now is as good a time as ever to discuss one of those elephants in the room. Japanese culture is different than American culture, and some things that are taboo here are not taboo there. The Japanese will sometimes use rather risqué behavior, not for it's salacious quality, but for it's humor content. These scenes are much more there for the shock value of a character losing face much more than the shock value of the risqué behavior itself. It's the reaction, not the situation that's funny. Now I'm not saying the Japanese aren't all a bunch of perverts, they are, but they take it way to an extreme that this just isn't. To be honest, these scenes don't actually translate well for American viewers because the societies are just so different. In America, swearing is what's considered funny, in Britian, it's toilet humor, in Japan, it's all about embarrassment.

Also, for some reason I don't really understand, there seems to be tons of rules to just what is appropriate or expected in a relationships, and it seems that this creates a sexual tension that isn't really sexual at all. For example, if one of Seina's love interests sees another of Seina's love interests cooking him a meal, no big deal, but if she decides to use special dating bowls, everyone goes totally bonkers. So that being said, there is a lot of non-sexual tension between the four female leads, who are competing for Seina's attention, and the tension really leads to some hilarious interactions.

This anime also puts exaggerated drawing to good use. When one of the ladies gets mad at Seina or one of the other ladies, she will develop massively exaggerated features where for example her mouth will go all pointy and her eyes will get all dark and gloomy, and a little cloud with lightening will hover over her head. It's really done well, where in other animes I've seen, this technique is not used all that well and in my opinion to reduce production costs with simpler drawing styles.

Cinematic Titanic

Cinematic Titanic is a project of Joel Hodgson, J. Elvis Weinstien, Trace Beaulieu, Mary Jo Pehl, and Frank Conniff, five former cast members of the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Joel was not only the creator of MST3K and Cinematic Titanic, but he and Josh and Trace were also original cast members of the first (non-KTMA) season.

One of CT's most interesting components is how the actors actually appear on the screen with the movie that they are riffing, albeit in silhouette. This allows for a visual interaction with the movie that really adds to the comedy.

As all of the people working on CT are past MST3K cast members, the nostalgia factor for an old MST3K fan like myself can't be denied, and I can't say how much of a treat it is for me to actually see Frank, Mary Jo, and Josh riffing along with Joel and Trace, because other than one single episode where Frank was riffing The Last of the Wild Horses with Trace, none of the three actually did any on screen riffing on MST3K.

I just purchased The Wasp Woman and it is funny. The movie isn't super terrible, so it makes it easier to watch and that in turn makes the comedy much more enjoyable. I haven't bought the other movies yet, but I'm also told that this movies is kinda where the troop is getting back in their groove, and I believe it. As of right now the fourth movies hasn't been announced yet, although I understand it's already been shot. It will probably be released soon enough, and I will probably start making plans to have all of them by then, so I will be up to date.

Their movies and some other merchandise can be purchased at their site, and promos for their movies can be seen on their Youtube channel.

70's Sci-Fi Movies

There's just something about Sci-Fi dramas that were made in the 70's. They have a style about them that's lacking now. Lots of red, green and yellow lights, drab interiors, and slow-paced movies that take their own time to get through. These movies rock, and what I've been finding out over the last few months is that there are more of them than I thought.

Most of these movies have a lot in common, other than the way that most of the sets are arranged and the fact that everyone seemed to be wearing pajamas. It was in this time frame that the impact humanity was having on the environment was just beginning to be understood, and an Earth ravaged by humanity was becoming a prevalent theme. The movies are a dystopian presentation, not as a morality lesson, but because they were interesting to portray on the big screen. In Logan's Run, a man fought the system where euthanasia was the solution to overpopualtion. In Soylent Green, a man discovers that humanity is being kept alive by a weird form of cannibalism, and in THX-1138 a couple fights back against a system in which the population was computer controlled and sex and love are outlawed. In The Omega Man, a man fights to save a dying family from a biological plague that has wiped out most of humanity. In The Andromeda Strain, scientists try to save humanity from an alien virus that will ravage the planet. Silent Running is about another group of scientists trying to protect the last forest on the planet.

There is another type of Sci-Fi movie that came out in the 70's that was a little less dramatic, and more effects driven, of which Star Wars and Star Trek the Motion Picture are examples. These movies were the emergence of selling eye-candy in the theater, and while the stories of both of these movies are good, they started a trend of special effects only movies that looked good but were about as interesting as reading a phone book.

Superman the Movie and Superman II also fall into this 70's Sci-Fi category because back then, there wasn't an established Superhero genre that was separate from science fiction, and these movies played by many of the same rules as do the movies mentioned above. A couple of movies that also fit into this category in every respect other than that they were a couple years too early or too late are 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner.

Something funny that all of these movies have in common other than the pajama thing (wardrobe people of the 70's what were you thinking?) is that there seems to be a lot of room for scenes in these movies that are just totally bereft of dialog. You don't see many directors that have the guts to do that today. Whether it's Clark Kent walking to the north pole, Logan and Jessica exploring the outdoors, Det. Thorn exploring the Soylent factory, Luke overlooking the ruins of his aunt and uncle's moisture farm, or Scotty ferrying Capt. Kirk over to the Enterprise, there sure seems to be a lot of time to listen to the movies score, totally uninterrupted.

The camp/cult factor of these movies are great, and everyone should watch them at least once. Additionally, the only contemporary movie I can think of that is similar to any of these movies, especially in the silence department, is I am Legend, which incidentally is also a remake of The Omega Man.

The Dragonriders of Pern Series

The Dragonriders of Pern is a series of books written by Anne McCaffrey. Pern is a planet that orbits the star Rukbat, about 170 light years away from Earth. The planet is colonized by a group of people who planned a simple life away from the high-tech civilization that Earth and it's colonies have become. They are pretty much cut off from Earth, and left on their own when disaster strikes.

A few years after the colonists have settled on Pern, a highly destructive life form starts falling down on the colonists from the sky. Because the life form resembles long silvery strings in the sky, it is named Thread. Thread originates on another planet in the system known as the Red Star. The Red Star orbits close enough to Pern to drop Thread for 50 years. There is a 200 year gap between passes while the Red Star is too far away to intersect Pern's orbit, and no Thread falls.

The original colonists have enough technology to alter the genetics of one of Pern's native creatures to combat the threat of Thread. They develop the sentient telepathic race of creatures which they call dragons because of the resemblance to the mythical creatures. These dragons with their riders char Thread from the skies thanks to their ability to breathe fire.

The main story takes place during the beginning of the ninth pass, which is approximately 2500 years after the colonists first arrived on Pern. McCaffrey has also written stories that take place during the second & sixth passes. The Pern series also focus on craftspeople, particularly the musical/teaching craftspeople called the Harpers. Almost all the stories of this series that don't deal with the Dragonriders deal with the Harpers.

Todd McCaffrey, Anne's son, has taken over writing the Pern series during his mother's retirement. They have collaborated on a few books, and Todd has written some on his own. Todd's work runs in a little different vein than does his mother's, but still he's continuing the family tradition really well.

As I'm writing this, just yesterday I finished the last Anne McCaffrey novel that I hadn't read before, Dragonsong, and in a way I'm a little bummed about it. I first started reading this series almost 20 years ago, and the style and character development were honestly a bit beyond me. I kept the books however, and when I reread them in my mid-twenties, I really enjoyed them.

The narrative style is unique, as the chronologies of many of the stories overlap and several key events actually happen in several of the books, however told from different points of view. Much of the conflict in the book arises from the pseudo-feudal system that Pern operates on, and the seeming inequities that this creates. However, in the ninth a cultural renaissance is taking place. Things are changing, and the agents of change deal with very traditional mindsets.

You can pick up reading about anywhere in the series due to the unique way the chronology works, and some of the books can be found in just about any bookstore.

The Film Crew

The Film Crew is a project of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, three former cast members of Mystery Science Theater 3000. These guys must have really missed the good old days because the premise of The Film Crew is extremely similar to MST3K.

These three guys roast a terrible B movie which is broken up with host segments at the beginning, end and in the middle of the movie, which is very much in line with MST3K. The main difference is that the Film Crew is appearing pretty much as themselves, and there are no puppets or people showing up over the movie in silhouette. The humor is good, the interaction between the riffers is actually the point where the Film Crew might just excel over MST3K because the are not in character.

The biggest downfall of the Film Crew is the fact that they only riffed 4 movies, and then because of problems that they were having with the company they were working with, the project was put on hold and then abandoned. Mike, Kevin and Bill have moved on to another movie riffing project, Rifftrax, and it is doing really well. Rifftrax however has taken a few elements out of the mix, and while they are still riffing movies, they've taken away the B movie factor as they riff much more familiar movies including new releases that are box office hits. This leaves out most if not all of the camp factor, which I really like. The Film Crew fills that need just a little better to me than Rifftrax. Rifftrax does provide streaming video that is already synced with the rifftrax, if however the RiffTrax crew released some of their stuff in DVD format, I'd be tempted.

Here's the icing on the cake though. Three of the four Film Crew movies are available on hulu.com, the only one that's not is "Killers from Space". Fortunately for me, I own Killers from Space, so I've seen all of these movies now. The DVD's also have some funny bonus footage, which is really kinda neat.

Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf is absolutely my favorite TV show. It's a British sitcom that is set 3 million years into the future in deep space where the human race is extinct and there is only one man still alive. His only friends are a hologram of his ex-roommate, an evolved cat, an android and a totally mental computer.

Originally I was introduced to this show because it ran on PBS on Friday night between Are You Being Served? and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Man I really miss the good old days of PBS. Anyway, I wasn't doing anything else at 11:30pm on Friday night other than waiting for my Flying Circus fix, so I watched it a couple of times. At first glance, I couldn't stand it. The series was obviously underfunded, extremely campy, everything was gray, and the first episode I ever saw "Confidence and Paranoia" was just plain weird. Incidentally, Confidence and Paranoia has been my least favorite episode of Red Dwarf for 15 years now, and will always be.

However, there were many Friday nights where I didn't have much to do at 11:30pm, so I did watch more episodes and I started to get just how funny this show actually was. I watched several episodes of the second season, which seemed to come together a lot better, and I was hooked. During most of the 90's, my collection of Red Dwarf consisted of episodes that I had copied off of PBS until later that year they started moving it around their schedule following a pledge drive campaign. I think I had about 20 episodes and no way to easily obtain more. Then I met the only other person who I didn't have to turn on to Red Dwarf ever in my life. Between me and Corey, we had every episode but one up to season 7 and we traded off making copies. I was missing most of seasons 1 and 6 and all of season 7, and an episode here and there, but I had all of season 4 & 5, which he didn't have. This happened some time in 2000, so there were only 9 episodes out of 52 that I hadn't seen. Then a couple of years later, they started releasing DVD's.

It was still not until a couple years ago that I actually got to see that last season 6 episode Rimmerworld and season 8 that I had been missing for years, but over a course of 4 years, I replaced my copied video tapes with DVD's and now not a week goes by without me watching at least some Red Dwarf. If you haven't seen them, you need to. For your own sanity, I'd suggest starting in season 2, which had some of the best comedy in the entire series. Nowadays trying to find these DVD's in the stores now is like trying to find a fart in a jacuzzi, so you are probably going to have to go to Amazon to actually buy these, but you should be able to get a discount and free shipping, so it won't cost you too much.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

I like Anime. However, I'm one of the rare discriminating anime fans. Unlike some, it takes more than the mere fact that I'm watching a Japanese cartoon to be impressed. I've been a fan of anime since the late 80's when the only way you could get your hands on it was if you were a member of a VHS club that imported tapes straight from Japan and made copies for everyone. I remember the days before subtitles when you had to rely on some guy in the group who spoke Japanese to translate it for you and print off companion guides that you read while watching the movie. I think Record of Lodoss War was the first anime I watched like that. That's old school.

Nowadays however, anime is both popular and abundant. Unfortunately, with the good comes the bad, and now the challenge isn't finding anime, it's finding anime that is worth watching. In the 90's there was a release of some truly terrible anime to the US market targeted primarily at 8-11 year old boys. This type of anime is called Shōnen in Japan. I know it's strange of me to want what I'm watching to be more than narration over a single frame with a background that alternates several times a second (epileptics beware!), and not tied into a collectible customizable card game.

Seinen anime is directed more at men 18-30+. It's generally written and animated better than Shōnen, and isn't the kind of anime that will make most post-adolescents groan when it comes on the TV. There are several different genres of Seinen anime, but most of them are set in contemporary or near future Japan where one or two elements of the story vary a bit from actual reality.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a very good example of good Seinen anime. The writing is excellent, the premise isn't way off in left field and there is humor laced throughout the entire story. Haruhi Suzumiya started out as a manga that has been successfully translated into one season of anime where aliens, espers (psychics) and time travelers exist. The main story revolves around five high school students, three of which are an alien, an esper and a time traveler, although Haruhi doesn't know it.

To give away more of the story would really turn this post into more of a spoiler, and I don't want to do that. You should be able to find this series just about anywhere that sells anime right now, but it not, no doubt you can buy it online, or borrow a copy from some friend of yours who still lives is their parent's basement.

Monty Python's Flying Circus

"It's!"

Whether it's confusing your cat, singing of cross-dressing lumberjacks, Venezuelan beaver cheese, Spam, Norwegian blues, or just musical mice that you are looking for, Monty Python's got them.

Most people in my generation know Monty Python more by the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but Flying Circus was broadcast the better part of a decade before Holy Grail's release. As a matter of fact, a guy in room 102 of my college dorm (I was in room 106) had a VCR that looped and he played Holy Grail on loop from September to April non-stop with an open door policy stating that everyone in the entire school was welcome to come in any time and watch as much or as little of the movie that they wanted. The only concession that he had was he turned the volume low at night.

Now, I'm not disparaging the movie at all, but when I'm watching Flying Circus, it's just funny. Because it's in skit format, there's not a lot of time for a lot of setup, so you kinda have to keep up for some of the humor to make any sense, and unless you are British or have take remedial brummy git, you are probably going to miss some of the 40-year-old pop culture references. That being said, I think that the humor for Flying Circus is actually funnier than any of the movies that Monty Python did, and is the pinnacle of their whole collective work.

There is a DVD set that was released a while ago, and while you can still find it used some places like eBay, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a new boxed set of the entire collection re-released some time in the future.

"And now for something completely different."

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Of all the cool things I'm into, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is definitely right on the top of the list. Because I know not everyone actually knows what MST3K actually is, I'm going to describe it for the uninitiated.

The premise of the show is that a guy and his robots are stuck in space and are forced to watch terrible B movies by a couple of mad scientists. During the movies, the guy and his robots make fun of what's on the screen. The end result is absolutely a comedic goldmine.

There's a lot more to it than this, but this simple formula kept this show on the air for 10 seasons. Although it has officially been off the air since 1999, MST3K has maintained it's popularity with many, and today has quite the cult following. MST3K was created by Joel Hodgson, but the final product was the combined efforts of the imaginations and work of all the members of the staff and the rest of the crew.

Although this isn't shown on TV anymore, you can find about 25% of the episodes on DVD now, and many of the rest of the episodes are available either on Google or Youtube. For the few episodes you can't easily get either on the net or DVD, there are clubs where people make copies (mostly VHS I think) for people who want them, kinda like a low-tech predecessor of file sharing (take that RIAA).

There's so much about to be said about this program that I could write a book, but it is better discovered than discussed, so I'll sign off today with, "Pants! Pants! Sing the praises of pants!"

Chicharrones

I have only been introduced to this culinary delight just very recently. I've ordered this appetizer 3 times now, and I'm hooked.

Chicharrones are Mexican pork rinds, but they aren't like any pork rinds you ever get in the chip aisle of the corner store. These wonderful bits of deep fried meat most closely resemble thick cut deep fried bacon. Did that get your attention. Thick cut deep fried bacon. Mmm, bacony goodness.

Now here's the genius to this dish. Fresh squeezed lime juice on the hot sizzling deep fried pork. How do you eat them? Dip them in freshly made hot sauce, and then let the tender lime and hot sauce covered bacony goodness melt in your mouth.

Because this wouldn't be complete without posting where I actually ate this gourmet dish, here's that info. Taqueria Mi Pueblo is a restaurant on the very western edge of Detroit's Mexican Town. If you can go, do so, you won't be disappointed.