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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57986312015-09-16T14:02:49.599-04:00Gibberish in NeutralIt's a madhouse!Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-89147291544697574722011-07-07T10:03:00.001-04:002011-07-07T10:06:14.705-04:00Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria 2 by Eiji MikageHakomari 2 can be read here.

A few months have passed since Hakomari Part 1, and Kazuki's life is approaching normal again. Except that Maria is still around. She knows that the mysterious 0 still has an interest in Kazuki, so she's not going to leave his side until they have a chance to defeat this enemy once and for all. Of course, sticking close to him creates all kinds of rumors that Kazuki would rather avoid, but what choice does he have?

His life suddenly deviates from normal again when both Maria and Kokone receive texts from him professing love. Maria quickly deduces that this is the work of 0 -- he's given someone a new Box and they're using it to take over Kazuki's body. Too bad Kokone didn't get the memo. This new User soon manages to alienate all of Kazuki's friends, and though Maria remains on his side, even she can't trust him when she doesn't know if she's speaking to the real Kazuki or the User.

This volume isn't nearly as claustrophobic as the first, which felt as though it was taking place entirely within a small room, even when characters were outside -- which makes perfect sense given the nature of the Rejecting Classroom. This time the world is more expansive as the characters aren't so constrained in their options. But that doesn't mean the story is any less creepy. But instead of Kazuki being trapped by the Box, this time the uncanny sensation comes from his body being possessed by an unknown force and used to destroy his life. There's one point when the User does ... something to Kazuki's sister and then sends a voicemail of her crying in an attempt to get Kazuki to cooperate.

My only complaint with this installment is that it falls prey to the Law of Conservation of Characters, which is odd in that it normally only applies to movies and TV shows where additional characters cost money. Here Mikage doesn't create enough new characters, so the number of suspects is limited; whereas the User in the first book was a surprise, I figured this one out before I even got a quarter of the way into the story. I'll admit that Maria's investigation was nothing short of brilliant -- the way she manipulates the User-possessed Kazuki is amazing -- but the way the story's structured made it redundant: the culprit can only be [SPOILER] or Sir Not Appearing In This Story; and, surprise, it turns out to be [SPOILER]. There's enough good stuff in this book to counterbalance this complaint, but the story would've worked better with a few more suspects.Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-64986992129781767572011-07-07T09:46:00.000-04:002011-07-07T09:46:44.231-04:00Toradora! Series by Yuyuko Takemiya(I've come to realize that reviewing all ten books of the Toradora! series would be way too much work, so I'm just going to do an overview of the entire series.)

First, note that these novels haven't been licensed in the US, so you have only two options for reading them -- (1) learn Japanese and import them from Amazon.co.jp, or (2) read the bootleg translations from Baka Tsuki. I opted for the latter, and while the translations are kinda rough in places ("Where's the delinquent Takasu!? Come and help us.") they're entirely readable, to the point that I managed to devour volumes 5 and 6 in a single day (roughly equivalent to reading a 500 page book in one sitting).

The plot is a straight-forward rom-com set-up: Taiga and Ryuuji are high school students in love with the other's best friend. Upon figuring this out, they decide to help each other out, but in the process end up falling in love with each other. There are lots of incidents along the way, most of them standard tropes for a Japanese school series (summer vacation, the class trip, the school festival).

But what elevates this series is the characters. Upon first introduction, everyone seems to fit into standard archetypes that should be familiar to anyone who's watched even a little anime: Ryuuji is the Ordinary High School Student; Kitamura the Class Representative; Taiga the tsundere[1]; Ami the Libby; Minori the Cloudcuckoolander. But Yuyuko Takemiya isn't content to let her characters languish as stock figures, but instead uses the story as a psychological study to examine what such characters would be like in real life.

Take Taiga. We first encounter her when she decks Ryuuji for simply bumping into her in the hallway. A little later she nearly beats him to death in order to retrieve a love letter she stuck in his backpack by mistake. Even once they become friends, she continually refers to him as a "dog" and slaps him around if he gets out of line. All of which is typical tsundere behavior, and most authors would treat it as simply humorous. And as with a tsundere, Takemiya slowly reveals that this attitude is armor that shields Taiga's soft, gooey interior, but she then proceeds to ask the question that other authors ignore -- what sort of screwed up circumstances would lead a girl to act this way.

The answer is that Taiga has severe abandonment issues: her father kicked her out of the house for not getting along with her step-mom and set her up in a luxury condominium with a large monthly stipend, and her natural mother wants nothing to do with her. When we finally meet Taiga's father, he turns out to be one of the few totally despicable characters in the series. His explanation for why he abandoned Taiga is absolutely gut-wrenching -- she's blood, so she has to love him whatever he does, while his wife requires effort to keep around. Can you blame her for being a bitch?

Ryuuji has the inverse problem. His mother ran away from home when she became pregnant with him in high school. She now works as a hostess in a businessmen's bar (i.e., she's paid to flirt with customers and get them to buy lots of drinks), and comes home every morning so drunk she's lucky if she makes it to her bed before passing out. All the burdens of taking care of her and maintaining the household -- cooking, cleaning, shopping -- fall upon Ryuuji. And he does it gladly, because he's a good boy. And when he sees the state in which Taiga lives, he instinctively begins taking care of her as well, going to extraordinary lengths to make her life better. Because he's a good boy. When he finds out Ami has a stalker, he immediately offers to help her. Because he's a good boy. When his friend Kitamura faces a personal crisis, Ryuuji tries to help him. Because he's a good boy. As the story progresses, Ryuuji takes on more and more burdens to help others, often at the cost of his own goals, until in the final three books the weight becomes too much and he begins cracking under all the pressure.

But by far the most fascinating character in the series is Ami, a famous teen model who's been forced to take a break from her career because of a stalker. Her genuine personality is acidic yet strangely likeable, but as a teenager working in a world of adults, she's cocooned herself with a fake persona, Ami-chan, a cute, sweet airhead. When she returns to the world of her peers, she no longer knows how to act, and for the first few books she's the closest thing the story has to an antagonist as she takes a dislike to Taiga and tries to get at her through Ryuuji (though it's never clear, even to her, whether she's doing it out of spite or if she has feelings for Ryuuji). But her real problem is, having spent so much time around adults, she understands nuances that the other characters are still discovering, giving her an uncanny ability to understand what's going on around her. Yet her attempts to warn Ryuuji are either ignored or end with someone getting hurt. The more she tries, the worse things get and the more she loathes herself.

Minori is an enigmatic character, seeming to be aloof and wacky, yet we get occasional glimpses of the depths she's hiding, such as in the fourth volume when Ryuuji finally gets up the nerve to ask if she has a boyfriend, and she replies with a seeming non-sequitur about ghosts and UFOs. But as she goes on for several pages on the subject, we begin to see that she's actually using a spectacularly extended metaphor to explain her feelings on love. But these revelations about Minori's inner mind are sporadic, and she remains a puzzle far longer than any other character. Even the ever-insightful Ami doesn't fully comprehend the extent of Minori's mask until the end of book 8, and when she finally figures it out she is astounded:

"Amin, why are you mentioning this?"

Hearing this question, Ami's response was: "Because you've always been playing dumb. I. Think. You. Are. Truly. Amazing. You can just pretend as though nothing has happened, say whatever suits you just to get through the occasion.... You really know how to act like a goody-goody."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I wonder, what was that supposed to mean?"

By contrast, Kitamura is a simple character. Although he too wears a mask (if you can't tell, the mask is a central theme to this series), it's more straightforward than the others -- at school, where he's the student council vice president, class representative, and captain of the softball team, he's serious and businesslike, but get him away and he becomes a wild-and-crazy guy with an penchant for exhibitionism. He does have a reason for this dichotomy, and once that reason is removed he relaxes his mask at school.

Honestly, these are some of my favorite characters in all literature. I would place Ryuuji, Minori and Kitamura at the same level as Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood, while Taiga and Ami come close to toppling Samwise Gamgee from the top spot.

The other thing I love about this series is that there are no significant villains. Sure, Ami's antagonistic when she first appears, but it's not because she's a bad person -- and in truth, it's Taiga who's the biggest obstacle to peace between them. There's also Ami's stalker, but he's little more than a plot device to bring the characters together. Even the one significant fight in the series, Taiga vs Kano Sumire, begins with Taiga thinking,

Was this the wrong thing to do? It could be the wrong thing to do, but Taiga didn't know.

She only knew that she wouldn't stop.

She was already unable to stop.

The only character who is an out-and-out bad guy is Taiga's father, and he only appears in a single book.

Hegel once observed that the truest form of tragedy is when two equally correct but mutually exclusive ideals come into conflict. Though this series isn't tragic, Takemiya takes a similar approach to create a situation where no matter what anyone does, someone will get hurt. What keeps the story going is that these characters are all good people, and when they're presented with the choice of hurting someone else or getting hurt, they choose to take the pain upon themselves. The whole series could've ended by book 7 if even one character decided to act selfishly.

But despite the lack of villains, Takemiya still finds a way to end each book with a cathartic climax (except #4, which is a quiet character study with an insignificant climax followed by a satisfying denouement). Most of these are major heart-breakers, such as the revelation of how big a jerk Taiga's father is in book 5, Taiga deciding to take down Kano Sumire in book 6...

...and her near-death experience in book 8. But the best of them is book 7, which is like getting kicked in the gut repeatedly by Malcolm McDowell. The anime adaptation is on a level with the dog episode of Futurama and that's heavily watered down compared to the novel.

And speaking of the anime, if you enjoyed it you should definitely read the books. The series did a good job of showing all the main points in the story, but there are lots of great details that had to be discarded, such as Minori teaching Ryuuji to ski, or the full extent of Taiga's plan to win the swimming contest. The worst is the treatment of Koigakubo-sensei -- in the novels, she's an unbelievably excellent teacher who just happens to have a horrible social life, while the anime turns her into a complete butt-monkey whose entire raison d'etre is to find a man and get married. Ami suffers to a lesser extent in the last third of the series as the last part of her character arc (in which she comes to hate Ryuuji and herself for the trouble they've caused) is abandoned in favor of making her another harem girl. (Although I do have to credit the anime writers for giving her the best line of the series: "Talking to you is like having my period.")

The anime does improve on one thing from the novels -- Taiga's delirious speech at the end of book 8 rambles on far too long after revealing the key piece of information, while the anime boils it down to the simple but effective declaration:

None of this should be taken as a slam against the anime -- it truly is one of the best series ever done, it just isn't as good as the novels, which deserve proper American releases with a good marketing department behind them so they're read by people besides geeks.

[1] Tsundere is a Japanese term that can be roughly translated as "bitch bitch, lovey dovey" -- basically a character that behaves like Princess Leia does around Han Solo.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-88811574259300985702011-07-06T09:55:00.002-04:002011-07-07T10:04:46.915-04:00Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria 1 by Eiji Mikage

You know what's amazing? It's only been 18 years since the film Groundhog's Day popularized the infinite time-loop story [1]. Less than two decades, but the concept has become a staple of sci-fi television -- it's hard to think of any SF show that hasn't had a Groundhog's Day episode. And yet there are surprisingly few literary takes on the concept, and off the top of my head I'm not aware of any novels that use the concept.

(You! Yes, you. The guy who's about to say, "What about Ken Grimwood's Replay?" Don't. Being able to relive large portions of your life isn't the same as being forced to repeat a short time-span ad nauseum. A single day or a week doesn't allow much variety for your experiences, or time to see any effect from your actions.)

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (0's Maria and the Box of Oblivion) is the first lengthy prose work I've encountered that tackles this idea. And whereas most TV series that use the concept follow Groundhog's Day approach and treat it as comedy, Eiji Mikage chooses instead to focus on the horror of the situation [2]. It helps that the characters are all high school students, which greatly limits their freedom of movement. Just imagine being trapped not just in trigonometry forever, but having it be the same lesson. A show like Stargate can have Jack and Teal'c go through hundreds of repetitions and come out unfazed, but Mikage knows that anyone in this situation would be going crazy after the first thousand cycles.

Most Groundhog's Day stories go in one of two directions -- either everyone is ignorant of the looping at first, but then gradually begin to experience deja vu; or the protagonist is aware of it from the get-go and has to reconvince those around him in each iteration. However Mikage takes the story in a direction I've never seen before (though the "Endless Eight" story in Haruhi Suzumiya did something sorta similar): Kazuki Hoshino, the main POV character in this book, is actually one of the poor dumb bastards who doesn't know what's going on, and he's constantly perplexed by Maria, the only person aware of the loops (other than the person causing them).

But some of Kazuki's actions make Maria suspicious that he's the one causing the loop, which draws her attention across multiple repetitions. After a while, her constant attention starts to break down the barriers to his memories and he's able to retain some information across resets.

The book is really well structured. Because Kazuki's memories are imperfect -- even once he gains the ability to remember past iterations, the power is inconsistent -- Mikage can use anachronic order to withhold info from the reader without it feeling like a cheat. Every time the story starts to get comfortable, he slips in a revelation that changes everything. The first of these came as quite a shock as it seemed to give too much away -- only 20% into the book and he's already revealed who's responsible for the loops. But then the next revelation would come along and call into question what had gone before.

This pervasive uncertainty, combined with paranoia about who is causing the loop, gives the story a very creepy Phillip K. Dick feeling that suits the plot much better than Jack and Teal'c shooting golf balls through the Stargate.

[1] The concept itself dates at least to the 1973 short story 12:01 P.M. which was actually turned into a telefilm the same year as Groundhog's Day, however only anal-retentive geeks like me know of 12:01 P.M. while everyone's familiar with the Bill Murray movie.

[2] I understand that early drafts of Groundhog's Day actually did treat the subject seriously, even suggesting that Phil spent thousands, if not millions of years repeating that day.Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-36186235516785159612011-07-05T09:51:00.000-04:002011-07-07T09:54:02.434-04:00Book Girl and the Famished Spirit by Mizuki Nomura

The Seijoh Academy Literary Club (which consists entirely of book-munching goblin Tohko Amano and the burned-out prodigy Inoue Kanoha) is back, and this time they're trying to catch a ghost that's been leaving creepy letters in their mailbox. Their investigation leads them to Hotaru Amemiya, a girl who seems to be possessed by the ghost of her dead mother and is apparently being abused by the uncle who's raising her. But the more Our Heroes investigate, the more complex the situation becomes.

Plot-wise this is a vast improvement upon the first volume, which had some serious pacing issues. And while the supernatural elements this time too turn out to be explicable through ordinary means, there aren't any of the abrupt tonal shifts that plagued the previous book -- once we find out the truth of what's going on, it doesn't get any less creepy.

Where this book lags behind The Suicidal Mime is the characters. Inoue and Tohko are still well drawn, but the guest stars aren't as interesting as Takeda and Kataoka, and the sections told from their point of view lack the power of the Dazai-inspired diary entries. I'm also disappointed in the handling of the secondary characters. Akutagawa is relegated to a walk-on role -- if this were a TV show, I'd think the studio had some contractual obligation to write him in -- and while Kotobuki gets some good moments early on (which confirm that even though her lips say, "tsun tsun," her heart says "dere dere") she's sidelined halfway through. OTOH, Maki, who was little more than a plot device in the first book, does get more screen time here, and the les-yay of the first book is cranked way up.

Taken as a whole, I'd place this book on a par with the first -- the improvements in one area match the problems in the others, so all told it's a wash. If you liked The Suicidal Mime you'll probably like this as well; if you didn't, you won't.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-46224616746630872532011-06-17T11:44:00.000-04:002011-06-17T11:44:14.998-04:00Toradora! Volume 2 by Yuyuko TakemiyaThe story so far: Takasu Ryuuji and Aisaka Taiga are the most feared kids in their high school. In Taiga's case this is a well-earned rep, but Ryuuji is a good kid who had the misfortune to inherit his yakuza father's mean looks. Ryuuji and Taiga are both in love with the other's best friend (Kitamura Yuusaku and Kushieda Minori) and agree to help each other. Along the way Ryuuji ends up taking care of Taiga, who has been abandoned by her parents in a luxury apartment next door to the Takasu's tenement. By the end of the first book, Taiga was practically living in the Takasu place, only returning home for bed (when she didn't fall asleep in front of the TV). This causes problems when other students notice the situation and conclude Taiga and Ryuuji are a couple. Which, you know, kinda puts a damper on their romantic plans. Nonetheless, they'd developed enough of a codependent relationship by that point that they couldn't quit each other, so they had to settle for convincing Kitamura and Minori that nothing's going on.

Book 1 ended with the establishment of a status quo, which is death for romantic stories, so Book 2 begins with a complication. Raymond Chandler once said that if you can't think of what happens next, have a man come through the door brandishing a gun. The rom-com version is to have a beautiful woman come through the door in a sexy dress. And so the book opens with Ryuuji and Taiga having lunch at a restaurant when Taiga notices a beautiful woman enter. And not any beautiful woman -- this is Kawashima Ami, the famous fashion model. And she's accompanied by Kitamura! They join Taiga and Ryuuji, and Kitamura explains that Ami's an old friend of his family who's in town visiting.

Ami seems like a sweet girl if a bit of an airhead, but when Kitamura and Ryuuji go to the bathroom, she reveals her true, bitchy self to Taiga. They get into an argument that ends with Taiga slapping "the stupid chihuahua" ("Sorry, you had a mosquito on your cheek. Oh, you have a fly on the other one.") But the guys didn't really go to the bathroom -- Kitamura knows about Ami's mask, and he wants Ryuuji to see it as well.

We find out why the next day in class when the teacher introduces a new student, none other than Kawashima Ami. The situation quickly deteriorates as Ami decides to crush Taiga -- and unfortunately for Ryuuji, she picks him as the tool for doing it.

Ami makes a great addition to the cast. Takemiya does a wonderful job portraying her dual personalities -- and making her inner bitch more likable than the "stupid chihuahua" facade. Sure, she's mean, petty and mercenary, but no worse than Taiga. It's her "Ami-chan is so cute," act that makes her such a perturbing character. There's a scene where Ryuuji and Ami get caught in the rain and her mask slips, which is the first time they're able to have a real conversation instead of Ami manipulating him with smiles and gentle caresses, and for a moment, before she falls back into her act, it seems they could be friends.

As a foil for Taiga, Ami is perfect. Anyone else, Taiga could simply intimidate, but if she tries that on Ami, the other girls in class, who absolutely adore Ami-chan, would turn on her. All Taiga can do is wait for Ami to make a mistake and pounce, such as a moment when Ami tells the class that she's just naturally thin and doesn't need to diet, which of course pisses the hell out of all the girls who eat salads at lunch and spend hours at the gym.

The first book was essentially a prologue that established the set-up for the series. This volume is where the real story kicks in. While it contains a plot in its own right, with a beginning, middle and end, it also establishes an ongoing conflict between Ami and Taiga, of which this is merely the first installment.

(NOTE: Don't expect to find this book on Amazon or in your local bookshop. From what I've read, there's no interest from American publishers in the series (most of the companies that publish Japanese fiction focus on sci-fi and fantasy). Even the anime adaptation only got a half-hearted release -- the distributor didn't even spend money on a dub track, a sure sign that they weren't expecting it to be a mass success -- so it's unlikely that an official release will happen in the foreseeable future. However, all ten books have been translated by fans, and you can easily find them by googling "Toradora epub".)Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-79055663317397236402011-06-17T11:43:00.002-04:002011-06-17T11:43:12.409-04:00Toradora! by Yuyuko TakemiyaToradora! is just your typical romantic comedy. You know, boy meets girl, girl punches boy, girl breaks into boy's apartment and tries to murder him, girl makes boy her slave and forces him to clean her apartment and prepare her meals. Classic Tracy and Hepburn stuff.

Ryuuji is a nice boy. Really he is. You'll never find somebody as kind, even-tempered and clean as Ryuuji (seriously, this guy is OCD about mold). He takes care of his mom, a hostess at a businessman's bar who spends her life alternating between being drunk and hungover with no period of sobriety between. Unfortunately he inherited his looks from his deceased yakuza father, particularly a pair of eyes that make him look like he's going to murder anyone who pisses him off. It took him most of his freshman year in high school to convince his classmates that he's not a thug, and now that he's starting his sophomore year with a new class, he's afraid he'll have to start over.

On the first day of school he discovers that Kitamura Yusaku, one of his friends from the year before, will be in his class, which is good. Even better, Kushieda Minori, the girl Ryuuji has a crush on, is there as well. So maybe this won't be such a bad year after -- hey, what's this! As he's entering the classroom, Ryuuji bumps into (literally) the only person in school more intimidating than himself: Aisaka Taiga, more commonly called "the Palmtop Tiger" for her diminutive size and fierce nature. Students immediately gather round to witness a clash of the titans, only to be disappointed when Taiga delivers a first round TKO. Well, at least everyone's less inclined to believe Ryuuji's a hardass.

A few days later, Ryuuji's doing his homework when he finds a love note from Taiga to Kitamaru in his bag. Apparently she screwed up and put it in the wrong backpack. The problem is, she realizes her mistake and breaks into his apartment that night to retrieve the letter. When Ryuuji catches her, she tries to beat him to death with a kendo sword. He fends her off and placates her by fixing her dinner. Turns out she's living on her own (in the posh high-rise apartment across the street, no less) and though her parents give her plenty of money to survive on, she has no housekeeping skills and has been subsisting off convenience store food. This is the first genuine meal she's had in weeks.

Ryuuji tries to cheer her up by showing her the box full of poems, mix tapes (well, mini-discs) and letters he's made for Minori. Finally he offers to help her get with Kitamaru -- or at least that's what he thinks he offers, though Taiga thinks he's offering to become her "dog". And Ryuuji's intimidated enough to go along with her demands, cleaning her apartment, cooking her dinner, and concocting ways for her to talk to Kitamaru. But these plans fail because, under her tough exterior, Taiga is actually a shy girl who gets nervous as hell when she's around a boy she likes. And to make matters worse, rumors start circulating that she and Ryuuji are a couple ...

I was a little trepidatious about picking this up since a ten volume rom-com epic isn't normally my thing. (Ten books might sound like a lot, but they're all what the Japanese refer to as "light novels" of only ~200 pages apiece. 2000 pages is still a lot for a romantic comedy, though it's short by light novel standards.) However, after about ten pages I was flying through the story. Ryuuji and Taiga make an hilarious odd couple, with him as the beleaguered straight-man to her insane tsundere, but with a genuinely sweet friendship that develops as Ryuuji comes to realize that beneath her hellcat exterior, Taiga is broken and lonely, and that for all her talk of him being her slave, she genuinely needs him to keep her from falling apart.

As a side note, don't expect to find this book on Amazon or in your local bookshop. From what I've read, there's no interest from American publishers in the series (most of the companies that publish Japanese fiction focus on sci-fi and fantasy). Even the anime adaptation only got a halfhearted release -- the distributor didn't even spend money on a dub track, a sure sign that they weren't expecting it to be a mass success -- so it's unlikely that an official release will happen in the foreseeable future. However, all ten books have been translated by fans, and you can easily find them by googling "Toradora epub".Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-86212318495998079412011-06-09T11:35:00.001-04:002011-06-17T11:41:23.758-04:00Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime

Konoha Inoue is a high school sophomore with a dark secret. Tohko Amano is a book scarfing goblin. Together, they fight crime.

No, that's not right. Together, they make up the entirety of the Seijoh Academy's literature club. Club activities consist almost exclusively of Konoha writing stories for Tohko to consume (great literature is yummy, but printed works just aren't as fresh as a handwritten story). However, Tohko's getting bored with things, so she's experimenting with ways to attract new people to the club.

Enter Chia Takeda, a first year who wants the Literature Club to help her write love notes to a boy she's fallen for. The boy in question is Shuji Kataoka, apparently the dreamiest member of the archery team. Konoha reluctantly agrees -- or, more accurately, Tohko agrees and Konoha doesn't feel like contradicting her, so he spends the next several days composing the best love note ever. Unfortunately, he tells Chia that it's just something he dashed out over lunch, so when the note goes over well she asks him to write one every day. This wouldn't be so bad if she didn't come to his class each morning to get the note. Given that she's barely pubescent, this leads Konoha's classmates to speculate that he might be into lolicon, particularly Nanase Kotobuki who becomes deeply antagonistic towards him. (This being the first volume in a series, I'm guessing she's going to turn tsundere soon enough.)

Eventually Konoha grows curious about Shuji, so he asks a classmate from the archery club about the guy -- but the classmate has never heard of him. Konoha and Tohko investigate and determine that there's no such person at Seijoh Academy. When they confront Chia, she gives them a note Shuji wrote to her, a very dark, disturbing letter that would send any sane woman running away in fear. But not Chia. Tohko recognizes several passages in the letter as being influenced by Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human, which I gather is an existential novel similar to The Stranger or Notes from Underground.

Things get even more mysterious when Chia takes Konoha to an archery practice to meet Shuji. Some alumni from the team show up to watch as well, and they rush to Konoha when they see him. Turns out, he looks exactly like an old team mate of theirs who committed suicide ten years ago -- Shuji Kataoka! Dun-dun-dun!

This popped up on my Amazon recommended list after I bought the Haruhi Suzumiya books. The description -- book club, weird girl, magic -- sounded like a knock-off, but I decided to give it a try anyway. Despite some superficial similarities, the two are very different. Tanigawa's series is a sprawling, genre-bending parody of anime/manga tropes, whereas Nomura plays things pretty much straight. I was quite surprised by how dark the book was -- to me "suicidal mime" is a funny concept, but it turns out to be a metaphor Shuji uses (taken from Dazai?) to describe the mask he wears to hide his true sociopathic self. Although when I say, "dark," I don't want to give you the impression that this is a bleak tale about how the world is a giant crapsack. Rather, it's dark in the way Byron and Emily Bronte were dark -- a key moment near the end involves Tohko explaining how most of Dazai's books are actually fun, and anyone who judges him on No Longer Human alone is missing the point.

My biggest disappointment with the story comes two-thirds of the way through when we find out exactly what's going on, and it turns out to have a rational (if convoluted) explanation. Such a Radcliffian twist seems out of place in a story with a Goblin who eats books. Nonetheless, I pushed through to the end, partly due to the fact that the book's only 180 pages, and partly to see how Nomura would fill the remaining pages after the main mystery was resolved. I'm glad I did, for after a brief lull the story picks up again with a twist that makes up for the main plot fizzling out.Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-66528840279459153992011-06-07T11:30:00.001-04:002011-06-17T11:35:45.740-04:00The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya by

The sixth volume in the saga of Haruhi Suzumiya turns out to be yet another short story collection, this one focusing on events from November through January.

Live A Live is essentially an epilogue to the second book, picking up exactly where Sigh left off. It's the day of the Cultural Festival and Kyon has just delivered the final cut of The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00 to the film club. Not having any breasts, he's not part of Haruhi's marketing strategy for the movie, and his class only conducted a lame survey for the festival, so he's free to enjoy the rest of the day. He grabs Taniguchi and Kunikida and they head for lunch at the cafe Mikuru's class is running.

Afterwards, Kyon, who stayed up all night editing the film, decides to rest in the auditorium where various student bands are performing. Just as he's dozing off, he sees Haruhi and Nagato take the stage as part of an all-girl rock band. As though that's not a big enough shock, the band turns out to be really good.

On Monday Kyon learns the whole story from Haruhi -- the band's lead singer/guitarist broke her wrist that morning and couldn't play. Haruhi overheard the band members trying to figure out what to do, and on the spur of the moment she volunteered her services as a singer; she also figured that Nagato would know how to play guitar and dragged her into the band. But the experience has weirded Haruhi out -- she's used to being the oddball, and having people appreciate her for her talent is a foreign experience. The story ends with a touching moment between Haruhi and Kyon.

The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00 is a summary of the infamous film produced by Ultra Director Haruhi Suzumiya. It's hard for me to judge this story because by the time I read it I'd watched the anime version, which is just so perfect that the short story is like reading a Wikipedia summary.

Charmed at First Sight LOVER, despite the awful Engrish title, is the best story in the book. It begins just a few days after the end of Disappearance with Kyon resting at home when he receives a phone call from Nakagawa, a classmate from middle school -- not a friend, just a guy Kyon sorta knew. A few months back Nakagawa saw Kyon walking with a girl and immediately fell in love. Kyon naturally assumes he means Haruhi or Mikuru and is going to warn him off when he receives a shock -- Nakagawa's fallen for Nagato.

After some cajoling, Kyon agrees to copy out a message to deliver to Yuki, though he instantly regrets it when he hears the drivel Nakagawa spouts -- the guy feels he is in no position to take out the goddess Nagato at the moment, so he asks that she wait ten years so he can go to college, get a job and start his own business, at which point he'll be rich enough to treat Yuki as she deserves.

When Kyon delivers the message the next day, Yuki's reaction is as expected -- no. Unfortunately for Kyon, he doesn't dispose of the letter properly and Haruhi discovers it. She immediately leaps to the wrong conclusion and tries to strangle him. When he finally explains what's going on, the other Brigade members agree that Nakagawa's request is ridiculous, but they are nonetheless interested in him -- even Yuki admits that, though she can't wait a decade for him, she would like to meet him. So that night Kyon calls Nakagawa and arranges for the Brigade to attend a football game he'll be playing the next day.

But this is the Haruhiverse, so there's more going on here than a simple date.

Where Did the Cat Go? is a sequel to both "Remote Island Syndrome" and "Snow Mountain Syndrome." It's New Years Eve and the gang is still at Tsuruya-chan's ski chalet, recovering from the encounter at the mysterious mansion from SMS. Koizumi had promised to put on a new murder mystery for Haruhi -- but this time everyone knows from the start that it's all a game.

The whole cast from the island returns -- Mori, Arakawa and both Tamaru brothers, though all Keiichi does is lie in bed pretending to be dead while Yutaka ... well, honestly I don't remember him doing anything. And that's the problem. For this grand mystery that Koizumi's supposedly been working on since summer, it turns out to be too simple. He gets his cohorts from the Agency to reprise their roles from the previous mystery, but they don't do anything, except for Arakawa and Mori answering a few questions while serving food. I know Tanigawa can write a decent mystery because he did it with RIS, and he can make a game interesting as he did with "Boredom" and "Day of Sagittarius III," but here he fails on all levels. It feels as though he's mentioned this party enough that he has to show it, but he doesn't have his heart in it.

The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina is a much needed remedy to the flanderization poor Mikuru's gone through. In the first book she was the most intriguing Brigade member after Kyon and Haruhi -- a time traveling secret agent who becomes infatuated with Kyon despite not being allowed to have a relationship in the past, who must subject herself to Haruhi's bizarre whims as part of her mission, and whose boss is her future (badass) self. But as the series has progressed, she's become little more than a giant doll for Haruhi to dress up on whim. She exhibits no agency of her own and acts like she's stepped out of The Perils of Pauline. This is of course why Haruhi chose her -- the brigade needs a moe character to attract new members. But even when the Ultra Leader isn't present, Mikuru isn't that useful. Nagato and Koizumi and even Kyon figure out what's going on long before Mikuru, and when an actual danger appears, such as in "The Mysterique Sign," she doesn't do anything.

At this point in the series, she's starting to fade into the background as nothing more than a piece of eye-candy that Haruhi drags everywhere. This story largely fixes that by examining why Mikuru acts the way she does.

The plot begins with Mikuru asking Kyon to accompany her to the tea-shop on Sunday, which he interprets as a date. Alas, it turns out she's doing this under orders from the future, and her mission is to bring Kyon to a certain street corner at a certain time where he must perform a certain action that will be important to the future. Mikuru doesn't even know what that action is until after it happens, at which point she's shocked to discover how important her mission was. Yet she wasn't allowed to perform the action herself -- seems the time travelers don't want to interfere with the past directly, though their definition of "interfere" strikes me as mighty strange.

Overall this is one of the weaker installments in the series. It suffers from an inverse Star Trek syndrome -- the odd numbered stories are good ("Charmed" is more than good) while the even ones are weak. That's still 60% good, but it's a letdown after the previous two volumes.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-77111563908812044452011-06-01T11:27:00.001-04:002011-06-17T11:30:21.036-04:00The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

The story so far: On the surface Haruhi Suzumiya seems to be an ordinary if hyperactive Japanese schoolgirl, but in reality she is a being of immense power, possibly even God herself. Luckily for the rest of the us, she doesn't realize any of this. She's surrounded by the SOS Brigade, a club she started for the purpose of discovering aliens, espers, sliders, and time travelers. Ironically, the Brigade is filled with exactly the kind of people she's seeking, though none of them have any intention of telling her. Yuki Nagato is an android created by the alien Data Overmind; Itsuki Koizumi is an esper with highly specialized powers for dealing with Haruhi's reality-warping; and Mikuru Asahina is a time traveler. The only normal Brigade member is Kyon, the guy who had the misfortune to sit in front of Haruhi in class.

Disappearance begins a week before Christmas. The SOS Brigade has been in service for about seven months, and the stress of keeping Haruhi in check is starting to take its toll on Kyon and one of the other Brigade members -- though not who'd you expect. After listening to Haruhi's grand plans for a Christmas party (plans that violate a number of school rules and the fire code), Kyon returns home and falls into bed.

The next day begins normally enough, but on his way to school he notices a number of oddities, most notably that his entire school seems to've come down with the flu overnight -- except his classmates insist that that the epidemic started a week ago. Even Haruhi is absent.

Or so he thinks.

At lunch, SHE arrives. The girl who sits behind him in class. Except SHE isn't Haruhi. SHE is someone who should not be here -- cannot be here. Yet no one else notices anything wrong. They think SHE has been here all along. When he asks about Haruhi, no one knows what he's talking about. He rushes from class to find the other Brigade members, only to discover that Koizumi's whole class -- the classroom included -- has disappeared. When he approaches Mikuru, she doesn't know who he is and his attempt to convince her he knows her by revealing personal information -- yeah, going up to a girl and telling her you know she has a mole on her breast, not a good idea. Even Nagato seems to be an ordinary school girl now, sitting quietly in the Literature Club room reading, exactly as she used to before Haruhi took over the room.

Kyon faces a tough decision -- this is the ordinary world he's been craving since Haruhi forced herself into his life, yet it's not his world. This is what he's wanted for the last three books, but now that he has it, he has doubts. And so he sets out to restore the world to the way it was, and he must do it without the help of the other Brigade members.

This book is amazing. Up until this point, I've found the Haruhi Suzumiya series amusing but fluffy. The first volume was an origin story, so it got away with being a bit plotless since the focus was on establishing the world and characters. The second novel was an old-fashioned, "Let's put on a show!" story right out of the old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney Musicals, with the added spice of Haruhi's reality-bending powers blurring the line between film and reality. It succeeded primarily because the characters were so much fun to be around, but by the end I was doubting how far these sorts of stories could carry the series before it would become nothing but inconsequential incidents more fitting for a daily comic strip than a novel series.

I have no more doubts. Put it this way, the anime series adapts four of the first five books. This is the one they skipped. Why? Because they were saving it for the movie. That's not to say this is some grand epic -- it's actually the shortest volume so far, at a mere 180 pages, and the only major fight happens off stage. There's a lot crammed into the story, but it's almost entirely introspective as Kyon comes to terms with the altered reality.

The most memorable moments are Kyon's interactions with the alt-Nagato. With the real Yuki's alieness removed, what remains is a sad, shy girl so lonely that one act of halfhearted kindness will make her fall in love.

Just as with the real Yuki, this Nagato hardly ever speaks, but unlike the real version she's able to convey her feelings with small gestures that reveal the depths of her misery -- tugging at Kyon's sleeves, handing him an application for the Literature Club in the hope that he'd come back and see her even though any sane woman would be filing a restraining order.

The revelation about what this alt-Yuki is and what Kyon must do to her to restore the world is absolutely heartbreaking to the point that I'm not sure he made the right choice, though he does make up for it somewhat in the penultimate scene when he discusses events with the real Nagato and reveals how far he'd go to save her.

(As a side note, the movie version hasn't received an official US release yet, but it is -- ahem -- available. The TV show was a pretty good adaptation of the books, but ultimately just light entertainment. As such, I was completely shocked by how powerful the film is. They completely nail it. Howard Hawks once defined a great film as having three great scenes and no bad ones, and this certainly meets his criteria and more.)Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-60516596045758676562011-05-26T11:24:00.000-04:002011-06-17T11:27:15.616-04:00Gods in Alabama

Talk about misleading cover blurbs. To read the marketing description, you'd think this book was a white trash version of a Tyler Perry movie -- white chick leaves her redneck little Alabama town, promising God that she'll never again lie, fornicate, or return. Ten years later her black boyfriend wants to get married, but he won't do it if he can't meet her family first. So they head down south for what's sure to be a wacky encounter with wacky relatives, full of wacky culture shot. Hoo-hoo-hoo. This is sure to be a laff riot.

Yeah. Not so much. There are some laughs, but the plot turns on the reason Our Heroine left town -- mainly she killed the high school's star QB and hid the body in some kudzu. Those promises she made -- they were in return for God keeping the murder a secret. All the humor in the book comes in scenes set in the present, which play out in a manner reminiscent of My Cousin Vinny, but the flashbacks to the murder, which account for about half the content, are pure Southern Gothic, and while no one's going to mistake Jackson for Faulkner or O'Connor, the book's certainly better than Charlaine Harris.Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-38461026508033666002011-05-23T11:20:00.002-04:002011-06-17T11:36:52.334-04:00The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya

The third volume of the Haruhi Suzumiya series turns out to be a collection of short stories set between the first two novels. This is a bit confusing as the events of some of these stories were referenced in Sigh, so really you should read this first -- except that Kyon is telling these tales retrospectively sometime after the Cultural Festival, and makes reference to the events of Sigh. So, yeah, anachronic order is a bitch.

Anyway, the stories:

The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya: Haruhi decides to enroll the SOS Brigade in a local baseball tournament. There are, of course, two problems here. First, no one in the Brigade has any real experience at baseball except Haruhi, who, if you'll recall from the first book, is a master of all sports but finds sports teams as boring as any other school club. Secondly, the Brigade only has five members. That last obstacle is solved by recruiting outside the club -- Mikuru gets her friend Tsuruya (who is, unbelievably, an even bigger Genki Girl than Haruhi) to join, while Kyon drafts his friends Taniguchi and Kunikida, and his little sister.

Why would he ask his little sister to participate in a tournament against adult baseball players? Well, he really wants the SOS Brigade to get elliminated in the first round. He sees the whole tournament as a huge chore, and the sooner they get out of it the better.

Unfortunately Haruhi doesn't share his perspective, and once their team starts losing she goes into a funk -- and when Haruhi's in a funk, the whole world trembles.

Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody: Mikuru takes Kyon back in time three years where he helps a younger Suzumiya perform a certain act of vandalism that was mentioned at the start of the first book. There are a few complications, but really, that's all there is to the story. Why Mikuru does this is never fully explained, though it's clear that in doing so she creates a big timey-wimey ball in which Kyon's actions are what start the whole series in motion.

The Mysterique Sign: The SOS Brigade finally gets a client. A girl named Kimidori comes to the literary room to ask the Brigade to find her missing boyfriend -- who just happens to be the President of the Computer Society. Haruhi delights at the chance to play at Scooby-Doo but quickly grows annoyed when there's no obvious solution. Which is ironic, because it turns out something supernatural is going on. But then, the last thing the other Brigade members want is for Haruhi to find out that the supernatural exists, so they're more than happy when she leaves in frustration and they can solve the mystery without her.

Remote Island Syndrome: Summer vacation is here, and Koizumi invites the Brigade to visit his uncle's villa on a remote island. Haruhi's read enough books to recognize the setting of a cozy mystery and leaps at the offer. And sure enough, the day after arriving, an unexpected typhoon hits the island, and then Koizumi's uncle turns up dead...

The stories in this volume are entertaining, but they have a certain filler quality about them. There's certainly some good character development, particularly for Nagato in the middle two stories and Koizumi in the last, but by the end of the book it's starting to feel like The Famous Five Go out for Icecream. The only story here that feels consequential is "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody," which does in fact turn out to be integral to the plot of the next book -- and that book is so awesome that you absolutely have to read this one, flaws and all.Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-26265962456289719992011-05-17T11:12:00.000-04:002011-06-17T11:16:22.518-04:00The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya

So, the SOS Brigade is back, and this time Haruhi decides they should make a film for the school's cultural festival. The fact that she knows nothing about film-making doesn't deter her in the least -- that's what her favorite buttmonkey, Kyon, is for. She tells him what to shoot, and he damn well better shoot it, or else. As for what he shoots -- no surprise, it involves Mikuru in a variety of absurd costumes.

The film's plot (to the extent it has one, which it doesn't really) centers on a battle waitress from the future named Mikuru (played by Mikuru, naturally) sent back to protect an esper named Itsuki Koizumi (played by Koizumi) from an evil alien witch named Yuki Nagato (played by, yes, Yuki). The fact that Haruhi has somehow assigned everyone roles nearly identical to their real selves, despite the fact that she's not supposed to know about them, disturbs the SOSers. To make matters worse, as they film the movie, aspects of the story begin to take on reality. Now the Brigade must find a way to stop Haruhi from using her powers -- but if they just outright refuse to participate, she might destroy the world! (Dun-dun-dun!)

If there's an overall plot to the series, we really don't get much of it here. We get some insights into Yuki, Mikuru and especially Koizumi's views of Haruhi's powers and some hints about how their superiors differ in their goals, but there's no real advancement plotwise. The next book is a series of short stories, so I don't expect much more from that, but the fourth volume sounds like it gets deeper into how the universe works.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-9702990340909654032011-05-16T15:00:00.000-04:002011-05-16T15:00:27.180-04:00The Naked Dame by Jason Bovberg

Fun hardboiled thriller in the style of early Spillane. Guy Redding is a detective who's going through a bad patch after his last peep-job ended with his client murdering his cuckolding wife. To make matters worse, Guy took the opportunity to cuckold the client himself, and now the client, who, oh yeah, is a mobster, has a grudge against him.

But all that is prologue. The story begins when Guy, while stumbling home from a night of drinking, discovers the titular naked dame, beaten and bloody hiding in an alley. Being a man who is not himself mean, Guy takes it upon himself to find what happened to her.

But this is the dark city, and nothing is ever that simple. Before long, Guy's been crossed, double-crossed, and triple-crossed.

The book, as with all good pulps, is short and to the point. Bovberg's taken Elmore Leonard's advice and didn't write any of the parts that everyone skips. The plot moves through its convolutions at a fast pace, and builds to one hell of a climax. My only qualm is that I figured out the set-up about twenty pages before Redding, though I must note that Redding was drunk and more than a little messed up by that point.Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-59553327459487633242011-05-16T11:16:00.002-04:002011-06-17T11:20:40.175-04:00The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is about a 14 year old Japanese schoolgirl.

(Well, there's a surprise. When was the last time you came across a light novel that didn't have a teenage girl as the protagonist? Japanese authors write about schoolgirls the way Americans write about middle aged white guys.)

True. Although to be fair, Haruhi isn't really the protagonist. She's more a force of nature. The real protag of the story is the narrator, Kyon. He doesn't want to be the hero -- he'd rather be a Nick Carraway type, watching interesting action from the sidelines and occasionally hanging out with the real hero. But on the first day of high school, he's assigned a seat in front of Haruhi and is thus sucked into Cloudcuckooland.

Haruhi is the sort of weird girl who, in an American movie version, would be played by a young Winona Ryder/Christina Ricci type. She hates the ordinariness of her life and wishes to encounter something interesting -- aliens, espers, sliders, time travelers. She'll talk to her fellow students just long enough to determine there's nothing interesting about them, then ignore them. But Kyon somehow gets past her defenses and she ... "takes a liking to him" isn't quite it. Drafts him as her first buttmonkey captures the relationship quite well. Soon Haruhi, inspired by one of Kyon's offhand remarks, decides to form a new school club, the SOS Brigade (that's the "Save the World by Overloading it with Fun Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade," which has to be the worst acronym since Calvin founded Get Rid of Slimy Girls).

Instead of chartering the club the proper way, Haruhi simply takes over the Literature Club, which has only one member, a girl named Yuki Nagato. Haruhi also shanghais an upperclassman, Mikuru Asahina who happens to have the qualities Haruhi wants in an SOSer -- i.e., big boobs. Later, when she hears about a mysterious transfer student named Itsuki Koizumi (all transfer students being mysterious in Haruhi's mind), she pressgangs him into the Brigade as well.

So what does the Brigade do? It's complicated, but mostly it involves Haruhi forcing Mikuru into revealing outfits (which wouldn't be so bad if she didn't do it in front of the guys. Yeah, for a YA novel, there's some real ickiness here.) They also make occasional weekend excursions to hunt mysterious phenomenon, though they fail to find any, much to Haruhi's frustration. Which is ironic, because it turns out every Brigade member beside Kyon is a mysterious figure working for mysterious organizations who were sent to keep an eye on Haruhi.

And why does Haruhi need to be surveilled? That's really complicated and should best be discovered by reading the book (though skip the back cover, because it gives away the big secret).

Apart from the supernatural elements, the book reminds me a lot of my high school years, when walking across the library could end with me getting shanghaied into a bizarre adventure with women of questionable sanity. Ah, those were days.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-22525014043021483732011-05-03T00:08:00.001-04:002011-05-03T00:08:29.656-04:00Words you don't normally see together: "mummified Playmate." http://lat.ms/jbqOLTSean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-73844467399926149832011-05-02T01:52:00.001-04:002011-05-02T01:52:29.241-04:00Big news of the day: Canadian election comes down to Conservatives vs NDP; Liberals totally suck. http://bit.ly/lNECQbSean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-81408897349028114212011-04-29T15:04:00.001-04:002011-04-29T15:04:49.396-04:00SF author Joanna Russ (1937-2011) http://bit.ly/miIC0TSean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-34641912970350275262011-04-19T23:21:00.000-04:002011-04-19T23:21:14.948-04:00A Fallen CompanionBBC reports that Elizabeth "Sarah Jane" Sladen is dead. She was only 63 and looked much, much younger.

A beautiful woman and one of the Doctor's best companions. She will be missed.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-12126341959728954802011-04-19T10:57:00.000-04:002011-04-19T10:57:31.608-04:00What I'm Listening To: Mates of StateSean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-79580502219337116582011-04-09T12:55:00.002-04:002011-04-09T12:59:21.699-04:00What I'm Listening To: Esben and the WitchEsben and the Witch are an English with a very dark and droning prog sound that pushes right to the edge of goth.

Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-31967442802072484822011-03-31T02:16:00.000-04:002011-03-31T02:16:13.926-04:00Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

I've been seeing this book in stores for years, but I never bothered picking it up, figuring Red Dwarf is best in thirty minute bites and can't sustain an extended storyline. But Audible had this on sale recently, and it is read by Chris Barrie, so I decided to give it a shot.

Storywise, the book is a mash-up of several episodes across the series' first two seasons, along with a significant portion of new material at the beginning. This new stuff, detailing how Lister joined the RD's crew (and what happened to poor McIntyre), is the best part of the book, giving us our only real glimpse into human society prior to "The End." Once Lister signs up, the book more or less follows the plots of the various episodes incorporated into the story ("The End," "Future Echoes," "Me^2," "Kryten" and "Better than Life"). Grant and Naylor do try to stitch these parts together, but while they add connecting material the result is still an rambling, picaresque tale.

That's not to say that if you've seen the series you should skip the books. There are times when the text is little more than the script with some "he saids" added (which makes the audiobook somewhat bemusing, with Rimmer's voice speaking Lister, Holly and Cat's lines). But Grant and Naylor change things up enough to keep you on guard. Captain Hollister becomes a woman with the misfortune to be named Kirk. The events of "Me^2" are tied into the discovery of Kryten with the Kochansky subplot jettisoned. The biggest change, apart from the beginning, is at the end when we enter Better than Life. On the show, BtL was essentially one long gag with no more depth than the backwards Earth, but in the novel Grant and Naylor take the opportunity to flesh out the world and show the sort of lives Lister and Rimmer lead there. In doing so, BtL becomes more insidious than it was ever presented on the show, and the story ends with a surprisingly sad twist.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-45515569995347719372011-03-31T00:58:00.000-04:002011-03-31T00:58:01.765-04:00Death's Daughter by Amber Benson

When Death is kidnapped, his daughter Susan Sto -- er, Calliope Reaper-Jones has to take over the family business. On the plus side, this means she has an excuse to skip out of work. But it also means missing a killer sale at Macy's!

If that last line reminds you of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it probably should. Amber Benson spent three years on the show as Tara, the sexy Willow's even sexier lesbian lover. Mmmm. Remember that great scene in Once More with Feeling? Yeah. I'll be in my bunk.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Joss Whedon, you jerkwad, how dare you kill Tara. Her character was about the only bright spot in the post-graduation episodes! No, wait, that's not it. Ah. I know.

Calliope is certainly a Whedonesque character, ready to bombard her enemies (family, friends, the pizza delivery guy) with a stream of sarcastic quips. Benson isn't as skilled with such dialogue as Whedon (Wayne's World was like 20 years ago -- nobody says, "Not!" anymore) but she still manages to make the text 80% witty by volume. Calliope also spends the bulk of the novel horny -- any time she encounters a being with something resembling a penis, her first instinct is to wonder if she has any chance of getting laid. Yet, despite being an apparently attractive young woman, she doesn't seem to've had a sexual encounter in recent memory, and her luck doesn't really change in the course of this story.

As for the course of the story -- there's not much here. Calliope has to complete a set of tasks before she can become the new Death, and of course she's really worried about her dad and spends most of the book searching for him. No, wait, that's what you'd expect from the book. But actually, she spends more time thinking about her chances of boffing the hot guy in her office than worrying what happened to her dad. Even in her quest, she's entirely reactive. She has several people to help her along and tell her what she needs to do, and these same people bail her out when she screws up. Even when these characters get knocked out of the narrative, she still finds someone to rescue her from dire situations, including, at one point, God himself.

And there we come to my one major reservation about this book. God exists in this universe, as does the Devil. We're even told the Devil was kicked out of heaven in something resembling the standard Miltonian version of events. All fine and good -- I have no problem with fantasy that assumes Christian myths are true anymore than I have a problem that involves Greek or Norse gods. But then this story does involve Greek and Norse gods -- and suddenly we're facing the Xena Problem: how do you reconcile these incompatible mythos?

Benson's answer is a variant of the Small Gods approach, where a deity's vitality is dependent upon how many adherents it has. This still doesn't square with (the apparently Judeo-Christian) God and Devil being the prime movers in the afterlife, but I can live with it. Until Kali shows up.

See, Calliope goes to meet the board of directors for Death, Inc. As she's on her way, one of her companions explains that the board is made up of gods who no longer have worshipers -- in fact most of the afterlife is run but such defunct deities. And this board is made up of Wotan, Persephone, and Kali.

Kali doesn't have worshipers? Bad enough to have a Hindu god serving in the afterlife at Jehovah's behest, but to do so by implying that Hinduism is a defunct religion and the Indian gods are has-beens -- what? This is just one step up from crazy ignorance of Temple of Doom. (On a sidenote, I listened to the audiobook, read by Benson, and for some reason her voice for Kali started out with an East Indian accent but kept changing to West Indian.) Though a minor world-building detail, this really detracted from the story for me.Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-73837106495924877252011-03-30T02:25:00.000-04:002011-03-30T02:25:36.767-04:00Glowing Text in GIMP: A Technique for Making Titles Stand Out on eBook Covers

People say, "Don't judge a book by the cover," but while there's wisdom in that expression, the truth is if you're in a bookstore and a cover pops out at you, you're more likely to pick it up. If this weren't true, why would professional publishers spend so much money on spiffy artwork?

The same principle applies to ebooks, but with an added challenge -- you need a cover that stands out when reduced to a 160-pixel tall thumbnail. Worse -- a black-and-white thumbnail for people browsing with the Kindles. There's a lot you have to cram into that postage stamp image -- a cool picture, a title, and the author's name. If possible you'll want the title and author to be legible even in the thumbnail, though both of these will be listed next to the image in most ebook stores.

If you look at self-published ebooks, many authors simply take their cover image, select a font, a color, and a size, and write the title across the picture. In many cases, this looks perfectly fine, but if you don't have high contrast between the text and background color it's easy for it to disappear in the thumbnail.

This tutorial will demonstrate some simple techniques for making text jump off the screen.

Open the image you're going to use.

Select Text Tool.

Select the area where you want to place your title

Select your preferred font and size.

Set text color to white.

Type in your title. Do any tweaking of the layout now, because if you change your mind later, you'll have to redo from start.

Click "Path from text".

 Make your foreground color black.

Layer->New Layer

Name the layer "Title".

For "Layer fill type" choose "Foreground color".

Click "Okay".

Disable the text layer (click the eyeball next to the layer)

Select--->From path (The outline of your title should appear doing an ant-crawl.)

 Make your foreground color white.

 Click bucket fill Bucket Fill.

 Make sure the Title layer is selected (not the text layer)

 Click your pointer within the outline of your title (zoom in if necessary).

 Filters-->Blur-->Gausian Blur

 Set the blur radius between 3 and 10 pixels. The smaller the text you're working on, the smaller the radius necessary. Too small and the effect won't be noticeable, too high and the end result will be too blury.

 Click "Okay".

 Colors-->Color Balance

 For midtones use the following settings:

Cyan/Red +100
Magenta/Green +30
Yellow/Blue -30

Click shadows and use the following settings:

Cyan/Red +100
Magenta/Green +30
Yellow/Blue -30

 Click highlights and use the following settings:

Cyan/Red +100
Magenta/Green 0
Yellow/Blue -100

 Click "Okay" (This should give the text a nice, fiery glow. You can experiment with other settings -- for example, if you push the settings towards cyan, green and blue, you can get a nice electric glow.)

 Select-->Invert

 Hit delete.

 This step is optional.

Make sure you still have the Title layer selected

 Layer-->Duplicate Layer

 Filters-->Distorts-->Emboss

 Click "bumpmap".

 Click "Okay".

 Since the title is on a light background, it looks fine now. If it's on a darker background, you can lower the opacity until the glowing layer shines through the emboss.

 This is another optional step:

 Click on the Title layer.

 Filters-->Light and Shadow-->Drop Shadow.

And here's the image with drop shadows and opacity on the embossed layer set to 40%:

Sean O'Harahttps://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-11331388831641067492011-03-27T13:08:00.000-04:002011-03-27T13:08:11.735-04:00What Is Wrong with This Poll?Seen on Goodreads:

April Fantasy Theme: Asian and Middle Eastern Flavoured Fantasy

Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was, by Barry Hughart

 50 votes, 22.7%

Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, by Alison Goodman

 47 votes, 21.4%

Across the Nightingale Floor, by Lian Hearn

 39 votes, 17.7%

The Bhagavad Gita, by Anonymous

 25 votes, 11.4%

Monkey: A Folk Novel of China, by Wu Cheng'en

 18 votes, 8.2%

The Desert of Souls, by Howard Andrew Jones

 16 votes, 7.3%

Snake Agent, by Liz Williams

 15 votes, 6.8%

Heart of the Ronin, by Travis Heermann

 10 votes, 4.5%

So out of eight "Asian and Middle Eastern flavored fantasies," only two are by actual Asians, and both of those predate Shakespeare. I know very little modern Asian literature gets translated into English, but surely there are enough that you don't need six white guys to fill out the list. Where're Uehashi, Miyabe and Ogiwara?Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798631.post-58190451007359323772011-03-26T15:21:00.000-04:002011-03-26T15:21:59.178-04:00The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss

This is what history should be -- short, concise, and no long digressions on the history of sandals or the archaeological significance of potsherds. When Strauss discusses motivations of various figures, he tells us what ancient sources said, what modern scholars think, his own view, and he makes clear that this is all speculation. Likewise, if the record is unclear about where or when an event took place, he gives the evidence and lays out the most likely answers -- but, again, he lets the reader know that this is conjecture.

After reading far too many histories where the author makes sweeping claims as though stating facts instead of speculation, this was a nice breath of fresh air.Sean O'Harahttps://email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Ultimate Warrior Likes All But One Of Heath Ledger's Movies
If you're like me, your social and political outlook is heavily influenced by blogs written by former pro wrestlers. You may or may not remember The Ultimate Warrior (aka Brian James Hellwig), who retired from the WWF in 1997 after a contract dispute. To let you know what kind of guy we're dealing with here, just know… »


text:
Car-Mart of Madisonville also works diligently in helping the community with collecting items to donate for those in need throughout Hopkins County.
"What we do, is we take in box fans in lieu of a down payment," said associate Bradley Boocher. "We collect up to four box fans per person, which then we are able to take about $1,000 off the down payment."
Boocher said every year donations are made throughout Hopkins County.
"We mainly donate around Hopkins County," said Boocher. "This year we will be donating to the Dawson Springs Housing Authority."For more information about Car-Mart, visit http://www.car-mart.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/carmartdriveeasy.
Amber Averitt
SurfKY Lead News Reporter
Photo by Amber Averitt
LIKE SurfKY on Facebook - Click here to LIKE us now.
© Copyright 2015 SurfKY News Group, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without permission. SurfKY News encourages you to share this story on social media.
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By Love the Pretties!
from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
I purchased the Blue and the Yellow and am soo thrilled! They were every bit as beautiful as the video indicated AND THEN SOME!
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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nice sparkle
By nannnamary
from new brunswick
I think I got a great deal, ,,i bought the blue diamond ring and the green diamond ring,,,,but would not pay full price,,,black rhodium does not do ring justice,,,,
Sparkles Galore!
By Jasmine
from Calgary
The photos do not show this as well as it should and makes it look bulky & dull. The video is a bit better for showing the product. Ring tapers off nicely down the sides, all the diamonds sparkle intensely especially in direct sunlight.I order 3 colors, red, blue, green, LOVE them all. Not for everyday wear, as the stirling silver on my red ring has a slight bend along the lower right side (not from me, arrived that way but can't return cuz my size is sold out & I love it enough to keep it), great for when you need some nice bling for any social outing. Giving it a 4 star only because the one ring arrived slightly damaged, will take it to a jeweller to have it repaired, as it is worth it.
very nice size
By Betty
from Chatham Ont. area
The black rodium spoils the look of the blue. I purchased it at very low sale price . I would have sent it back if I had spent a lot. Silver would have been much nicer than black. Disappointed. Will try and have it have a new rodium finish.
By Paula
from Nova Scotia
My blue diamond ring arrived today and I am thrilled with it. The colour is stunning with lots of sparkle. I bought this ring when it was on sale at a remarkable price...Lucky Me!!!!
Redder than roses.
By champagne-on-ice
from Pickering, ON
Received this ring in red diamonds and wear it every day now! It's very comfortable and the Red diamonds sparkle brilliantly. They do look a bit darker, like black diamonds at times, but it is a beautiful ring that is well balanced and easy to wear. From the first time I saw it on air, I've wanted it and the sale price enabled the purchase.
Beautifull ring in blue colour.
By Nelia
from Toronto
The ring looks contemporary and even better than on the picture.
( 9 of 9 customers found this review helpful)
Yellow Diamonds Ring
By abbys63
from Ontario
This ring is BEAUTIFUL. I opened the box and the ring was sparkling so much. The sizing was great. Anyone would be proud to wear this piece of jewellery. Buy this ring, you will not regret it.


text:
Richard Nixon's Ghost: Roger, get up Roger, you greasy malcontent. It's you're president.
Clemens(waking up): Huh? Who is it? Who's there? Is that you Grandpa? I don't wanna play "freaky turtle" today.
RNG: No Roger it's me, You're commander-in-chief. Old Tricky.
Clemens:Dick Nixon? But your, your.....
RNG: Yes Roger, dead as a door nail. But I've come back for you Roger, to bring you a warning from beyond the grave! OOOOHHHHHHHH(scary ghost chants ensue)
Clemens:Please go away! This is just a dream, a horrible, drug induced hallucination!
RNG: No Roger, this is real, as real as my dog Checkers after eating a half-dozen Snickers bars. So heed my words Roger, for I feel you're pain.
You will be visited by three others within the next week, you're first will be today. Some lowlife who calls himself "Petite". He is you're Howard Dean, Roger. He is you're misery. He has the eyes of a fruit bat and the breath of a dung-beetle, and he must be dealt with Roger.
Clemens: No. Andy's my friend. Your Lying! You liar! Go back to Presidents hell,you swine!
RNG: You covered up Roger, now the wagons are circling. The cover up Roger, it's always the cover-up.
Clemens: But, I'm telling the truth. I'm from Texas!
RNG: STOP NOW (RNG SCREAMS). How dare you lie to the Undead! You knave! You scurvy bastard! Don't you understand, they smell blood now. The media is turning on you. Soon you're own children will cast you off as a Scottish leper, bartenders will spit in you're Jim Beam and cokes, Your wife will blame you for her new pain. You're doomed.
Clemens: You right! Oh God, you're right. What have I done?!(sobs)
RNG: Pull yourself together man! Nows not the time for self-pity. Save that for you're hall of fame induction. Now is the time for action, and I've got just the thing for that worm you call a friend.
RNG:(whispers) Well, the first thing is..............


text:
indigo and tan lace print cotton cap sleeve day dress
designer's notes
Keep it cute with the fun and flirty contemporary day dress designs of A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz.
color: Indigo / Tan Lightweight lace print cotton woven Rounded neckline Cap sleeve Box pleated a-line skirt with tulle underlayer Oval cutout back with concealed zip Fully lined Contemporary fit Size 4 measures approximately 23'' long from natural waist, 34'' at bust, and 36'' at hip; may vary by size Self: 100% Cotton; Lining: 100% Rayon; Dry Clean; U.S.A; style# 320940901


text:
Hey y'all,
So I got some LF lenses from a friend who had no need or want for them. One was a 135mm Raptar in a Rapex which I really enjoy, but the other is a 210mm (i think) Orbit lens in a Copal-1.
It seems like a no-name lens and it's no so clean either. I'd like to put something a little schnazzier in there. Does anybody have recommendations for a good lens that would fit the Copal-1? I'm thinking that maybe I'd be able to get a good deal if I waited for some 210mm lens elements to pop up for sale, w/o a shutter.
The other question I have is, would it be fool hardy to put in another focal length lens in the shutter? I know that the f/ stops would then be incorrect, but couldn't one just easily convert those f/stops to the new FL?
Thanks in advance!


text:
You are a fan of same motorsport ? Come to discover the best forums same motorsport on the internet and share your experience with a community fan of same motorsport . You can also build a forum same motorsport and create your online discussion.
Forza Motorsport's Touge Community
Home of EZT Motorsport. Our free-to-join forum allows you to come and talk to all our team drivers, ask advice, and just generally have a good time. Forza Racing Team
Our goal is the authentic representation of historic racing series utilizing the XBOX One platform.
forza, xbox, #motorsport, racing, pcars, recreate, series, mimic, real, life, closely, possible, within, confines, games
Finish Line Racing (FLR) is a Global Racing Community for the Forza Motorsport Series, Formula One Series, and other racing games! Anyone and Everyone is welcome! Get in the seat, grab the wheel, and put your feet on the pedals, because this will be
forza, #motorsport, global, racing, cars, trucks, finish, line, formula, 2011, 2012, project, lone
Place for lovers of all things automotive to share their passion.
#motorsport, spot, place, lovers, things, automotive, share, their, passion


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No laughing matter: how a top comedy writer became a Catholic
A family crisis and a strange encounter put him on the path
Picture: Catholic News Service
- Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service
- United States
- September 24, 2013
Tom Leopold is a very funny guy. He's also a Catholic.
He has been funny longer than he has been a Catholic. But being a Catholic doesn't stop him from being funny.
"I can't go more than two lines without getting a laugh," Leopold told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from New York.
Leopold has spent the better part of his adult life writing sitcoms, including episodes of "Cheers," "Seinfeld" and "Will and Grace." He recently came back from England, where he did what he called some "punching up" of a batch of scripts for new episodes of "The Muppet Show." He has written for such diverse comic talents as Bob Hope and Chevy Chase, and written with some of the most inventive minds in comedy, including Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer.
But Leopold joined the Catholic church only last year. It took a family crisis to set him on a path toward Catholicism.
My daughter had this very serious, life-threatening eating disorder," Leopold said. She was in treatment in Arizona, where the hospital would not release her until Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, he recalled that he and his wife went to bed.
"We're trying not to let the other one know how sad we were," he said.
But for Leopold, "that's the first time I prayed." However, since he had, by his own count, "one day of religious training" in his life, he said he prayed "like they prayed on (the old TV western) 'Wagon Train': 'Lord, I'm not a prayin' man, but if you'll just see us through Comanche territory.' "
Early Christmas morning outside his hotel, Leopold said he encountered "this 75-year-old ex-Marine (who) pulls up on this homemade motorcycle with deer antlers for handlebars. He tells me his name is Shepherd. He introduces his wife to me and tells me that she brought him to Jesus at 33 -- and Jesus died at 33. And the sun's rising behind his head like a halo. And I haven't said a word.
"I thought it was the Ambien kicking in."
The cyclist's last words before he roared off into the desert, according to Leopold, were "God is watching you."
"This is the first of many shocking kinds of coincidences that made it impossible for me not to come to the church," Leopold told CNS.
But why Catholicism? "I prayed, and Jesus was the first to show up. What else am I going to do?" he replied.
Full Story: Sitcom writer's road to Catholic church no laughing matter
Source: National Catholic Reporter


text:
Fashion Night out is one week away! To celebrate this fabulous day of enjoying treats..
Disclaimer: You'll see a few posts about this event until it's party time! I can't..
YES YES YES to this week's Rolling Out Magazine cover!! Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari..
Alleyhouse Entertainment presents the fashion event "Polaroid Beach" on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012 at New..
Asia and Ashley Matthew had mentally prepared to be separated for the first time after..
This week, Trey Songz released his new album "Chapter V." VH1 was hosting an "Ask..
With cuffin' season right around the corner and many of us participating in the 2012 Dating Challenge, going..
National Harbor is holding its inaugural Sample Sale featuring merchandise up to 70% off! Score great..
It's hard to think about fall while temperatures are still in the 80s and 90s..


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Welcome to your child's first classroom! We provide your children with a first-class early development education. Our
Infant Center
provides excellent care for children starting at 6 weeks old. We continue to meet your growing child's needs by providing transition classes through 2 years of age. Our
offers programs designed for children ages 2 to 5.
Put your child's future first! We encourage you to drop by, take a tour and see what we have to offer in terms of facilities and curriculum.
Website Designed
for Your Business


text:
- Filed Under
Registration times have been announced for Prospect baseball and softball for youth.
All registrations will be held at Elgin South Elementary school in Prospect.
The sessions are: 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturday, March 2; and 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturday, March 9.
For more information, contact Scott Pierce at email@example.com or at 740-360-8064.


text:
Institute for International Economic Policy
IIEP Research Staff
IIEP engages undergraduate, masters and Ph.D. students in its research programs. IIEP researchers are drawn from departments across the university, including from the fields of economics, international affairs, political science, history, and public health. Researchers work directly with IIEP affiliated faculty on projects in the fields of international trade, international finance, and development economics and poverty reduction and on our four signature initiatives in the areas of climate change adaptation, Ultra-Poverty, global economic governance, and U.S.-China economic relations and China's economic development. Among other tasks, IIEP researchers undertake primary research, draft figures and tables, and contribute literature reviews, text drafting and editing, data coding, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, econometric analysis, and translation of technical documents from foreign languages into English. Their work contributes to classroom presentations, working papers, scholarly journal articles, blog posts, conference presentations, research briefs, textbooks, and policy briefs and booklets.
Students interested in participating in IIEP research activities are encouraged to email email@example.com with a resume, a cover letter describing relevant research interests, and an up-to-date unofficial transcript.
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Please contact email@example.com for more information.


text:
Short Course #5
Introduction to Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Science and Technology
Stuart B. Adler and Nguyen Minh, Instructors
Please visit the San Francisco meeting page for registration information. Early-Bird Registration rates are in effect until September 27, 2013. See a list of all Short courses offered at the San Francisco meeting.
The objective of the course is to provide an introduction to Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) science & technology, with emphasis in the following areas:
Stuart B. Adler is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle. His work focuses on electrochemical ceramics, including advanced measurement and modeling techniques for solid-state electrodes, and independent studies of kinetic, transport, and thermodynamic properties of solids. Dr. Adler received his PhD in 1993 from the University of California, Berkeley. After a postdoc at Imperial College, UK, he was a staff scientist at Ceramatec, Inc. before rejoining academia in 1999. Professor Adlers awards include a NSF-NATO postdoctoral Fellowship (1993), NSF Career Award (2001), the ECS Charles W. Tobias Young Investigator Award (2004), and the UW Junior Faculty Innovator Award (2007).
Nguyen Minh is an internationally known expert on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and related technologies. He has been involved in the development of SOFCs and new energy systems for the last 25 years. His experience covers a full spectrum of industrial/product R&D areas, ranging from technology assessment, strategy and roadmap formulation, fundamental and engineering study to processes and manufacturing development, system design and operation, prototype demonstration, and cost/market analysis.
Dr. Minh is currently Associate Director, Center for Energy Research at University of California, San Diego and an independent consultant on SOFCs. Until May 2007, he was Chief Scientist, General Electric (GE) Global Research, Torrance, CA. As the Chief Scientist, Dr. Minh was responsible for the organizations overall technical objectives, oversaw the broad technical roadmap and R&D direction, and served as the Principal Investigator of GE multi-million dollar fuel cell programs and the primary technical representative to customers and industry. From 2001-2004, he was Manager, Fuel Cells and led the fuel cell group at GE to develop SOFCs and SOFC/gas turbine hybrid power systems for commercialization. He was responsible for group performance and provided technical direction, coordinated group activities, and assisted in business strategic planning.
Dr. Minh has been a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and a number of organizations and companies. Dr. Minh is the author/coauthor of the book Science and Technology of Ceramic Fuel Cells as well as five book chapters, 20 patents, and over 100 published technical articles on fuel cells and related technologies.
For additional information about Education, please contact: education @electrochem.org
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text:
Bob Mohr, far left, president of CCD Fort Myers LLC has lunch with attorneys, second from left, Jeff Tolley of Dallas, Justin Stockman of Fort Myers, Paula Nodwell of Dallas, and Pat Garaghty of Fort Myers discuss a settlement at the Veranda Restaurant at Second Street and Broadway in downtown Fort Myers. The Veranda is a top restaurant for power lunches. / ANDREW WEST/news-press.com
When Paul Peden started The Veranda 32 years ago in downtown Fort Myers, it wasnt the venue of choice for the political, business and government power brokers who frequent the nearby city hall and courthouse buildings.
But it is now, and has been for a long time.
Pedens secret?
Theres no finish line, the veteran restaurateur said. Yesterdays performance is just that.
He also takes care to provide places where people can have a sensitive conversation in private if need be: private rooms that can seat as many as 30.
The location near the hub of business and government in Lee County is a necessary ingredient to success, Peden said, but that alone wont keep you on top.
For example, he said, despite the restaurants reputation as an ageless landmark, Its evolved into what it is right now.
That evolutions still going on, Peden said. For example, We rework the menu items. Theres always something happening on the reprint.
Today, The News-Press takes a look at some of the restaurants around Southwest Florida that residents nominated as catering to power brokers in their own neighborhoods.


text:
An exquisite presentation by the young couturier, Alexis Mabille, provided a rare chance to examine the detailed workmanship and handcrafted techniques close up, reports Hilary Alexander.
BY Hilary Alexander | 06 July 2010
The young couturier, Alexis Mabille, ignored the catwalk in this Paris haute couture season and, turned the Angelina tea-rooms on the rue de Rivoli into a temporary atelier. A dozen exquisite pieces were displayed on mannequins, which provided a rare chance to examine the detailed workmanship and handcrafted techniques up close.
But I feared for the trains of the long evening gowns, hand-embroidered and beaded for Mabille, by the Atelier Cecile Henri, as hundreds of Louboutin, Choo and Blahnik stiletto heels stalked by in the rush to the champagne bar - heedless of the difference twixt silk crepe and carpet!
Mabille's autumn/winter 2010 collection focused on the idea of couture "separates", as in a loose "corolla" top, tied on the shoulder with bows, embroidered with scrolls and flower appliqués, and with a fine under-layer of micro sequins, which could be worn with a white raffia/cotton ballerina-skirt, trimmed with black ribbons, or, more simply, with slim black trousers.
I loved his "frou frou' blouse in palest peach silk organza, with "mille feuille" sleeves in a cloud of petal-pleated organza and lace, and a tracey of bow embroidery - one of Mabille's signatures. One of the most glamorous pieces was a black silk-velvet gown, with an elaborate bodice, embellished with cornelli embroidery in silver and gold, and with a flourish of pale pink silk orchids, on each shoulder, a motif which was then scattered over the skirt.
Each of the pieces on show, Mabille explained, could be ordered with less elaborate hand-finished decoration - something which would appeal to those on a smaller budget. It is to be hoped this is the case, because young couturiers such as Mabille survive without the backing of huge conglomerates and their passion and commitment to haute couture is vital.


text:
After Chael Sonnen was quoted bashing Brazilian fighters Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers. Lyoto responded by saying,
"I think [the Sonnen fight] is great, I'm excited to do that. He's coming back now, wants to fight, and I really think it's a good fight for me. If Sonnen really wants this fight, I'll sign it immediately, no problem at all."
Despite rumors Lyoto Machida will not be fighting Chael Sonnen this October. Sonnen is set to fight former Marine, Brian Stann. How do you feel about Sonnen's trash talk? Do you think they should eventually meet in the ring?
Lyoto Machida vs. Chael Sonnen not on UFC's fall schedule
After Chael Sonnen was quoted bashing Brazilian fighters Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers. Lyoto responded by saying,
27 Comments:
I hope Sonnen dies in the ring. Finally, a pay-per-view event would be worth the money.
There's absolutely no way Sonnen could get Machida down and ultimately, he'd pay the price via KO when trying to do so just like Bader.
There is no doubt that chael sonnen has an excellent ability to get fighters to the mat. He then beats them up with elbows so he is a nemesis to pure strikers. He backs up alot of his trash talk, but him beating machida is a joke. Lyoto's elusive style and outstanding karate skills sonnen would struggle the entire fight. If he can't get his opponent to the mat, he has nothing to offer but heart.
Oh, what I have to say..has to do with one of his defeats.
I really would like to give Lyoto some humble advice in a private fashion but the e-mail address on this site does not respond.
I was affliated with an MMA gym which has a line of communication with other MMA gyms in the professional circile. What I have to say most probably is rubbish but might be worth hearing nonetheless.
Based on Chael's last performance, I think Machida would be the favorite in this fight.
Chael Sonnen is no near half better fighter than Lyoto Machida. Long live to the Dragon Machida.
chael sonnen would rip machida in half
Good luck on fighting Jon Jones. I am confident you can beat him.
I'd like to see Machida fight an elite striker like Vitor Belfort next. Even Wanderlei Silva. Someone who will put on a great show and also put a massive feather in Machida's cap. Machida needs to send a message to the UFC and the fans and that message is that he is still a major force in the light heavyweight division and he deserves that shot at Jones.
Also, I believe Bones will defeat Rampage.
(Prob by decision)
Love to see that one!!! Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida would kicks Sonnen's mouthy ass!!!!! Long live Machida!!!!
machida would finish sonnen off in 1 round with ease i honestly think machida would even beat anderson
Phew! Sonnen was just making new and fresh issues in order to make himself marketable once again after a long vacation. Lyoto Machida is too much for his sloppy skill. I think he should pick Michael Bisping, Chris Leben or Mark Muñoz instead.
P.S. Chael Sonnen must defeat Anderson Silva first to stand a chance against Lyoto Machida! Hahaha!
now that davis is out of 133 and doesnt have a serious injury, him and lyoto would make sense for ufc 136 or 137
I meant to say that I doubt either is true. I doubt Machida is money hungry.
From everything I read, it was Machida's management who demand the cash. I want to know what Machida thinks. It is no secret that is Machida gets paid more, than so will his management team. Even Ed Soares said someone else was handling the negotations. I understand the wanting of more money, but Machida has never said anything close to this before. So either it was something that no one ever touched on, or he turned a new leaf unexplainably quickly. I highly doubt the second is true. I do agree that Evans will get another bed time if he fights Machida again. Maybe we would get another "Crane Kick" KO.
Supposedly White turned down The Dragon after he asked for "Silva money". Supposedly, White said F-OFF! Hey, if he did ask for that kind of money, he probably did it because you're asking him to fight on 3 weeks notice AND save UFC 133. Let's be honest here, Machida v Evans II is waaaaaaaaay better than Evans v Davis, right?! I don't think Ortiz stands a chance, Evans is much quicker than him and is well rested. Evans will win and they will talk about him getting the next title shot, blah blah blah. Meanwhile, Machida is truly deserving of that shot and they are making all efforts to keep him in the shadows. Given the confidence gained from the Couture fight, I think The Dragon would run through Evans and Rampage, setting up an amazing match-up against Jones. With Machida's luck, he'll draw Davis or Thiago Silva, which will prove nothing.
Darn. You're right Josh. Something went wrong and the fight will not happen.
I just heard the news today, sorry fellas, but the rumors going around about Lyoto fighting Rashad II is false. Machida refused, which is rather smart, on behalf of himself, wife, etc. 3 weeks notice…that's nuts.
Machida and I quote 'would be unfair to the fans on 3 weeks notice and give a bad performance.' We shall see him again in the future & kickin ass!
As for UFC 133, Phil Davis is injured and both Machida and Tito turned down the fight with Rashad based on such short notice.
Machida vs Evans II i'm loving it Rashad has no time to prepare haha!
Machida – Evans II !!!! Hope this goes through! If so that will be one hell of a card on UFC 133! Ossssss!!!!
I don't think that this question would ever arise again. Machida should not worry about losers like Sonnen. He would crush him like a bug.
with 3 weeks notice. xm, this is going to be tough.
The Dragon v. Suga the sequel…
It's on like Donkey Kong.
That would be awesome if Machida fights Rashad again next month! I just hope that Machida's been training and is ready to fight that soon.
Come on, Dragon, knock his arse out again!
Yep, saw that one coming..
I agree, with Chael running his mouth like it's a marathon he deserves to fight someone like Machida who would put him to sleep like a light switch. Funny how though that despite all that trash talk, Chael has LOST to EVERY SINGLE Brazilian he's fought and been submitted nearly the same way each time HAHA. Anyway, enough of that clown.
Machida, my friend you are moving every closer back to YOUR Belt! Keep up the excellent work ethic and dedication.
I feel he should fight Forrest Griffin or Jones. Shogun maybe in the future to settle the score.
I'm always entertained by Chael Sonnen, but if he picks a fight with Machida then I hope he gets knocked out. That would be awesome. Nobody messes with the Dragon! Now announce Machida's next fight already, damn it!