Audio/Visual Update
Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+Quincy Jones: Big Band Bossa Nova
Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Mama Mia! The Movie
+Journey to the Center of the Earth
Animania:
+イヴの時間
+ToraDora (とらドラ)
+To Aru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録)
Movies to Catch - ‘09:
+Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (崖の上のポニョ)
+Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
+Full Battle Rattle
+Reclaiming the Blade
+Watchmen
+Terminator: Salvation
+Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
+2012
+Star Trek
+Up
+Angels and Demons
WTF, Hollywood? WTF?
+Astroboy
+Dragonball: The Movie
Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+Zombie Strippers
+Jack Brooks - Monster Slayer
Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女X - Chapter 29
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 238
+会長はメイド様!
Dead Tree
+Homework for Grown-ups: Everything you learnt at school… and promptly forgot
Online
+Questionable Content
+Real Life
+The Order of the Stick
+Turn Signals on a Land Raider
New Year, New Beginnings.
On with the show!
I’m really enjoying my new headphones! That aside, I think we kicked off the new year with a great choice of movie, Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (崖の上のポニョ). Studio Ghibli usually delivers good work, and watching the movie made me miss our trip to the Studio Ghibli Museum.
It was funny to hear Joe Augustin on Power 98 yesterday ranting on about how the theme song got stuck in his head after watching it, and how he’s going to inflict the same on everyone else by playing the song on national radio. The theme song didn’t affect me so much as the musical score; in particular the scene when Ponyo was running atop the waves to Sosuke was reminded me very much of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.
Got me a new set of cans!
Sounds very sweet, especially in the mids and lows. I’m still breaking the phones in though, so this may change. The leather padding is surprisingly comfortable and doesn’t get all that sweaty even in our tropical heat. The only complaint is that phones are quite narrow across the head, and pinches my ear somewhat (maybe because I’ve got a big head, and oversized ears?), so extended wear is a little on the uncomfortable side. But other than that, I’m really happy with the cans. Sound isolation isn’t all that great, because I can still hear what’s going on around me in the office through the phones, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if using them on the streets (so as to hear coming traffic!).
Currently listening to:
+Quincy Jones: Big Band Bossa Nova
A Walk Around The Neighbourhood By Night
A Walk By Moonlight
Last night — it was a lovely night,
And I was very blest —
Shall it not be for Memory
A happy spot to rest?Yes; there are in the backward past
Soft hours to which we turn —
Hours which, at distance, mildly shine,
Shine on, but never burn.And some of these but yesternight
Across my path were thrown,
Which made my heart so very light,
I think it could have flown.I had been out to see a friend
With whom I others saw:
Like minds to like minds ever tend —
An universal law.And when we were returning home,
“Come who will walk with me,
A little way”, I said, and lo!
I straight was joined by three:Three whom I loved — two had high thoughts
And were, in age, my peers;
And one was young, but oh! endeared
As much as youth endears.The moon stood silent in the sky,
And looked upon our earth:
The clouds divided, passing by,
In homage to her worth.There was a dance among the leaves
Rejoicing at her power,
Who robes for them of silver weaves
Within one mystic hour.There was a song among the winds,
Hymning her influence —
That low-breathed minstrelsy which binds
The soul to thought intense.And there was something in the night
That with its magic wound us;
For we — oh! we not only saw,
But felt the moonlight around us.How vague are all the mysteries
Which bind us to our earth;
How far they send into the heart
Their tones of holy mirth;How lovely are the phantoms dim
Which bless that better sight,
That man enjoys when proud he stands
In his own spirit’s light;When, like a thing that is not ours.
This earthliness goes by,
And we behold the spiritualness
Of all that cannot die.‘Tis then we understand the voice
Which in the night-wind sings,
And feel the mystic melody
Played on the forest’s strings.The silken language of the stars
Becomes the tongue we speak,
And then we read the sympathy
That pales the young moon’s cheek.The inward eye is open then
To glories, which in dreams
Visit the sleeper’s couch, in robes
Woven of the rainbow’s beams.I bless my nature that I am
Allied to all the bliss,
Which other worlds we’re told afford,
But which I find in this.My heart is bettered when I feel
That even this human heart
To all around is gently bound,
And forms of all a part;That, cold and lifeless as they seem,
The flowers, the stars, the sky
Have more than common minds may deem
To stir our sympathy.Oh! in such moments can I crush
The grass beneath my feet?
Ah no; the grass has then a voice,
Its heart — I hear it beat.- Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-1831)












