baby art blog

nostalgia! - any brits my age will have fond memories of richard allen and these “new english library” books passed around school playgrounds like semi-illicit contraband in the early 1970s - “skinhead”, which took less than a week to write by the hack novelist, was acclaimed for it’s streetwise authenticity and went on to sell a million copies - and spawn a million copies?! - i must admit i didn’t get on with that particular book at the time, i was more into “chopper” and the biker scene - so ’bout time i caught up on me lack of proper educational grounding in moral incorrectness, innit?!

the “complete richard allen” omnibus editions, published in the nineties, equally collectable and invariably criminally priced now - and, btw, that cover snap i recognise as my old home town of brighton outside the br station - bet i’ve leant on that lamppost myself!

飯沢耕太郎

東京キララ社 (Ａ５) 2010年7月 1,680円 (税込)

きのこ文学研究家である著者が蒐集した「きのこ絵本」「きのこグッズ」「きのこ小説」、貴重なきのこの図版など多数収録。古今東西のカルチャー・シーンからきのこを探し出す、目で楽しむ「きのこ狩りツアー」。

how come there are no photos of you, anywhere? so mysterious!

okay, just for fun
what does trevor brown look like? - how do you imagine trevor to be? - why doesn’t he allow photos? - answers anyone?

(i’l probably delete any comments from those who do actually know what i look like …if they’re not sufficiently flattering!)

unrearthed this while digging out an old tomb raider game to replay - a game directed by tomomi sakuba which came out in 1999 - a sorta point’n'click adventure game with rpg elements and, um, fishing for frogs - impossible to understand for stupid gaijin like me - altho that didn’t stop me spending weeks trying - no gameplay walkthroughs on youtube - in fact pretty much nothing at all about this anywhere on the information superhighway - hence prompting me to upload these “rare” and “exclusive” screenshots - altho the baby art blog somewhat dead lately, it’s still way cooler than thou, ha!

btw, the girls face on the box cover looks peculiarly like tomomi sakuba himself!

prince of persia : forgotten sands

i’m easily appeased by red life orbs, smashing vases, rotating cranks (but, what, no boxes to push?!) and increasingly tricky platforming (”floors are for losers”) - here spiced up with some interesting time mechanics - and interludes of requisite button-mashing (the capability of having a couple of dozen individually animated undead adversaries all on the screen at once has been fully milked) - bar some scary face modelling it all looks tombraiderishly resplendent - the biggest failing with this is the dialogue which mostly consists of wimpy banal stating-the-bloody-obvious mutterings, extending to “i need to jump onto that hidden ledge” game spoiling! (the “i’ve a good view of your butt” level of flirty chatter in the previous prince of persia game better???) - anyway - over too soon but overall tb says fairly solid

red dead redemption

covered in drool before release but comparisons to the astronomically over-rated “gta” killed my own expectations and enthusiasm - an inevitable purchase however and i was relieved to discover it’s actually more like fallout iii (to my mind at least) and it immediately impresses from the filmic opening - this is a game rich in great dialogue and good “acting” - also visually immersive and amazing - much of the time you’re riding from a to b on your horse enjoying the countless acres of realistic beautiful scenery - you can just sit and watch the sunset and be completely awed by it - it feels like being on holiday - and, well, just like being on holiday too long, no matter how incredible it is, there comes a point where you’ve had enough and want to return home - after countless dozens of ten minute missions it does start to get tiring - something like watching a 20 plus hour long film? - also you eventually start to feel like a dogsbody to all’n’sundry (and by the end a pussywhipped chump!) - the ending makes it worthwhile tho : )

split/second

racing game with destructo-environments for novelty factor - but possessing the usual inherent annoyance factor - ie: you perfect flawlessly perfect laps, obliterating the opposition, easily taking the lead, a comfortable breeze to the finish-line… - …but then you take the last corner a fraction of an inch too wide, or some other very minor indiscretion, and out of the blue every single car you left miles behind, or even totally nuked out of existence, suddenly speeds past you, and you finish in last place - pah! - actually, tbh, i’ve barely touched this yet - something i’ll tire of quickly i suspect but i got a lot of mileage (ahem) out of the demo so i figured i’d pick it up as there’s no other new game worth buying for months now

ico

a quirky ps2 classic, held up as one of the greatest games ever - despite the now very poor resolution (a ps3 remix long rumoured) and serious gamma issues, i’m not going to contest that - this is love!! - quite literally? - i killed about 800 people in red dead redemption, and that’s playing the good guy, so it’s nice to come to something more endearing and dreamy - it’s strangely affectionate and touching the way ico drags his frail girlfriend around like a rag-doll

- - -

two new designs produced by span art gallery - B2 size (51.5 × 72.8 cm) - signed - i guess they’ll be on sale at ¥1000 each (same as their maruo posters) - i’m not sure if oversea orders are possible tho, at the moment - more info to follow…?

the previous alice posters are still available from aka tako

a tribute to “nazis are sexy” (via mark ryden’s “little boy blue”?)

i cant even begin to say how many problems i have incured trying to make this shoot happen. first no one would make it, then no one would attatch the swastika and finally no one would shoot it […and…] im still not all that happy with the result

the petty arguing continues unabated on the bonnie blog

i’m stuck between no comment and speechless

related posts:
nazis are sexy
myspace for [phony] perverts

i went to have a troublesome wisdom tooth surgically extracted a couple of days ago - altho i have a nurse/medical obsession, i am petrified of hospitals! - the nitrous oxide did nothing whatsoever for me - my pulse rate remained around 110 - how can you possibly relax knowing that a tooth is about to be smashed out of your skull any second - tho i did notice it had dropped below 90 once the proceedings were underway - my gum was cut open and the tooth had to be sawed into three pieces to be removed - an hour of butchery later the nice dentistman proudly showed me the collection of tooth fragments - in particular singling out one with his forceps to display the curved root (clearly designed not to be removed from the human jaw) - altho brutal and prolonged terror, i must admit it was all quite painless - the only ouchie was when he accidentally snagged a whisker with one of the implements being stuck in my mouth

my cheek puffed up a bit the next day, altho falling disappointingly short of the golf ball i was promised - swallowing was difficult at first and opening my mouth still requires delicacy, but i’m recovering fast - for two days i survived on nothing more than yoghurt with thinly sliced banana (baby food!) - went to my more local dentist yesterday for my ex-tooth to be daubed with antiseptic or whatever - two seconds work ..which cost half as much as the operation! (dental fees relatively cheap here, being covered by health insurance)

oh yes, they have a child porno painting in the hospital lobby - a big painting of a nude little boy, focusing on his slightly disproportionate genitalia!

the first in a trilogy of albums - a series of seemingly disparate short episodes which intricately weave together to form a single complex narrative - something like a suburban soap opera, a french twin peaks! - (i cribbed this from amazon) - the art (and surreal creepyness) is very charles burns - c’est très bon!

other stuff - bought “the saturn apartments” and “i’ll give it my all …tomorrow” - a couple of promising new titles from viz’s ikki line in sophisticated and ground-breaking manga - but personally i found them pretty meh - (maybe i could have discovered this online if japan wasn’t disallowed to view the ikki site content) - read and enjoyed “the crimson labyrinth” - and bought “house of leaves” and “the marriage of reason and squalor”