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Miyazaki’s Fish Story: A First Look at the Disney Release of Ponyo
Posted by Joe Strike on Jun 30, 2009 in Animation
Everyone’s had that tingling feeling running (as they say) up and down one’s spine when they experience something awesome. Last night I saw a preview of Hayao Miyazaki’s new film Ponyo — and the feeling hasn’t gone away yet. Read more… Anna Van! Know the Future
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 30, 2009 in Japanese TV
Anna van! (Announcer Bang アナ★バン!) is broadcast on Sundays at midnight on the Fuji Television Network. The show is a bit odd because while it’s aimed at adults the studio setting looks like a kids show with the host talking to a sun puppet. This episode below is titled “Know the Future” and features palm reader who informs the well dressed ladies if they will be lucky at love, work or money: Read more… Japanese Retro Robot Memory Sticks
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 29, 2009 in Hobbies and Collections
The AntDesignStore is a Japanese version of Archie McPhee of sorts, they offer a wide range of novelties from this cute laptop chair to cat themed sleeping masks. Shown above is a line of their colorful looking retro robot line of USB memory sticks which are available at geekstuff4u.com. What’s cool about the design of these robots is that their LEDs light up when you plug them into your computer. Read more… It’s THE Ultimate Coffee for Japanese Salarymen: UCC THE Coffee
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 29, 2009 in Japanese TV
This late 80s greed-is-good coffee advert exerts a wonderful bravado for UCC THE Coffee. Doing some research I found that THE Coffee (with sugar!) is still being marketed to the public, in fact here’s the full line on the Japanese UCC website. Here’s another slightly less dramatic spot for THE Coffee from the 80s that I found: Read more… Anime 2009: Summer Promos
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 28, 2009 in Animation
A user on YouTube did a great job of putting together all of the Anime promos and commercials for the Summer season. The video above features: Bakemonogatari, Blue Flowers and Canaan. Read more… Imori Miyuki Looking Picture Perfect
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 28, 2009 in Japanese TV
My guess is that commercial for Fujicolor Super HG has to be from either the late 80s or maybe the early 90s. The spot features the picture perfect looks of Imori Miyuki who started her career in 1986 in the TBS series It’s not fun, this is love (遊びじゃないのよ、この恋は) and is still active today. She has focused on comedy and her latest role was in the series Road to Remarriage (再婚一直線!) where she plays a struggling cartoonist trying to balance life with her proper looking husband and cute child: Read more… Miku Hatsune: Live in Concert!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 27, 2009 in Hobbies and Collections
This limited edition figma Miku Hatsune Live Stage Version will be released at The Wonder Festival on July 26th in Japan. Not only does the virtual idol have a keyboard but you can also pose her with a petty nifty looking speaker system as well: Read more… The Perhapanauts: Don’t Doubt That It’s Potentially Darn Good
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 27, 2009 in Comic Books
I’m just not sure how I overlooked The Perhapanauts which is published by Image, shown above is issue #6 which just came out. I have no clue why an issue that comes out in June has a Halloween theme, but that doesn’t matter — what does matter is that this book looks great inside and out. Most publishers pull the bait-and-switch cover routine, but I have to say that the draftsmanship and character designs within this book are A+. Read more… Amelia: An Aviation Biopic Ready for Take Off
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 27, 2009 in Cinema
I’m usually not a fan of biopics but I think this case I might make an exception: The story of Amelia Earhart is a really strong one that’s ready for a fresh look. Add to that Hilary Swank as the aviator and surround her with the likes of Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor and you may have a winner, and if nothing else the cinematography that I see here looks beautiful. I even like the nice touch of having the scarf in the letter “A” on the logo. Amelia will fly into theaters in October and is directed by Mira Nair. Read more… Buzz Aldrin: Aviation Family Values
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 26, 2009 in Science
This interview with Buzz Aldrin is from my favorite local news source NY1 (they have the best coverage of everything from the state of the subway to local political issues). Shelley Goldberg usually does their kids coverage so while this isn’t on her beat she does an A+ job of talking with an Apollo astronaut about some heavy topics in a very short amount of time. Daybreakers: The Vampires are Running Out of Humans!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 26, 2009 in Cinema
The most depressing thing about this trailer is that awful cover version of a Kate Bush song that kicks in about a minute and a half into this trailer! Until that point I was willing to give yet another vampire flick a chance, but ruining a musical icon ruins everything for me. Well in any case Daybreakers will come out in January 2010 so perhaps they’ll have time to fix the soundtrack. Here’s an overview of the plot: Read more… The Jackson 5ive: Before He Was the Gloved One
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 26, 2009 in Animation
Believe it or now I recall watching this show as a child, although it may have been in re-runs! The Jackson 5ive ran for two seasons from 1971 until 1973 and was produced by Rankin/Bass in collaboration with Mowtown. The show was very similar to the Beatles cartoons that ran a few years before: The average plot was that the group is on tour, one member falls intro trouble and crazy antics resume which are interrupted by musical numbers: Read more… Michael Jackson: The Master of the Music Videos Passes Away
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 26, 2009 in Television
Above: A vintage Michael Jackson record player from the 80s, photographed by Dan Jones. With the passing of Michael Jackson everyone is focused on title “the king of pop” but to me his contribution was much more important in another area: The fine art of making music videos. This is important to me as I came of age in the 80s and while my taste in music was more on the new wave side than pop or R&B I was (and still am) bery much a hardcore fan of music videos. Yet even if you weren’t a Michael Jackson fan during that era if you were into music videos you couldn’t avoid his domination of the medium. In fact I think it would be fair to say that Jackson was one of the artists that made a network like MTV possible. Read more… Farrah Fawcett: Tribute to an Angel
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 25, 2009 in Television
The above photo My Farrah Fawcett Poster (from Shaggy Duck on Flickr) perfectly captures how an entire generation discovered Farrah Fawcett in the 70s. The fanboy in the photo above wrote “It was the 70’s and this was the moment I received MY Farrah Fawcett poster! I covered an entire wall in my room with Farrah and Charlies Angels pictures”. Read more… Inglorious Basterds: Latest Trailer
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 25, 2009 in Cinema
I don’t care if it’s good, bad or silly: I’ll stand in line for any Quentin Tarantino — so by default this is the film I’m looking ahead to seeing this summer. Part of me is still trying to get use to Brad Pitt’s southern twang matched with Tarantino’s wisecracking dialogue. The plot of this film reminds me a great deal of The Dirty Dozen with a touch of Pulp Fiction thrown in for fun. Below is another clip I found from late May when Tarantino first showed the film in Cannes, it’s very cool as it has a full scene with a set up by Quentin at the start of the video: Read more… Steampunk Guns: Cosplay Fire Power
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2009 in Hobbies and Collections
Designed by neoelegance these two steampunk prop guns are available on Etsy. Shown above is the DG-4450 Blaster and below is the Subsonic Immolator. Both weapons are issued to officers on airships in Her Majesty’s Royal Zeppelin Corps and are useful for defending against sky pirates. Read more… Buzz Aldrin: Let’s Aim for Mars
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2009 in Science
I just finished reading an amazing essay by Buzz Aldrin — Buzz of course is the second human to have walked on the surface of the moon during the Summer of 1969. Aldrin is currently pushing his book new book Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon Ed McMahon and the Bygone Era of Network Television
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 24, 2009 in Television
Ed McMahon represents the passing of the age of broadcast television which his career mirrored, and of course he’s best known for his long lasting gig at the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1962 until 1992. But over the years he worked on a number of side projects: And from a fanboy point of view the most amusing to me is Legends of the Superheroes. This 1979 show was a sort of live action version of the Super Friends cartoon which was produced by Hanna-Barbera at the time. Read more… Manga Themed Nissan Commercial
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 23, 2009 in Comic Books, Japanese TV
I came across this recent manga themed advert for the Nissan Cube and was blown away — I really love how the design of this spot picks up on the conventions of Japanese comics from the black and white characters to the use of zip-a-tone patterns. Meito Air in Choco: Strawberry Fish Forever!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 23, 2009 in Hobbies and Collections
Being a vegetarian I had seconds thoughts before buying this fish shaped snack treat (called Meito Air in Choco), but the strawberry flavor theme intrigued me no end. The faux fish is very similar to a light weight wafer cookie and the guts of the fish had a creamy light filling. Although one side of faux fish was slightly damaged I managed to get a good scan of the flip side: Read more… A Commodore 64 on Your iPhone: An Exclusive Interview with Manomio
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Tech, Videogames
If you’re a retro computing fanboy like me on Saturday you were devastated to learn that Apple denied permission to the developer who created a Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone. Now normally this news wouldn’t surprise me, but what broke my fanboy heart is that the developer jumped through all the right hoops: Not only did they get a license from the owners of Commodore but they even got positive signals early on from Apple. Read more… Holy Cow! It’s Phil Rizzuto for the Money Store
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Television
 Phil Rizzuto: An ace ball player. Shigekikkusu: Super Sour and Sweet Gummy Candy
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Design, Hobbies and Collections
At my local Korean food mart I came across these devastatingly sour and sweet candies from Japan called Shigekikkusu (シゲキックス) which are produced by UHA Mikakuto. I picked up two flavors, the first (shown above) was soda flavored and the second was cola flavored (shown below). The candies were small but packed a punch — the outside was coated with a light dusting of super sour dust, after a few seconds this wears off and you can taste the very sweet inside of of jelly like candy. Read more… Remembering Al Hirschfeld: The King of Caricatures in Action
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 21, 2009 in Comic Books
This amazing rare video shows illustrator Al Hirschfeld in action drawing a caricature of Paul Newman. Hirschfeld was born on this day in 1903 and lived to be 99 years old (he passed away in 2003). His legacy of drawing Broadway stars was so strong that they named a theater after him, and he honored his only daughter Nina by sneaking her name into each illustration (often doing it several times). What’s amazing to me about this video is that it was shot when Hirschfeld was 99 years old, yet the detail and quality of his draftsmanship looked as good as ever. Read more… |
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, but what has warmed my heart is that instead of reliving the past he’s pushing for the idea that NASA needs to aim higher and not just land on Mars, 
