I couldn’t remember how substantive a role Mie Hama had in the spy flick Woody Allen dubbed, so I unearthed the DVD—the problem with P2P is that you rely on someone else out there catering to your nostalgia, and mine is ever-so extemporaneous. The 鍵の鍵 original may require patronizing a shady bootlegger, it’s even harder to come by, but honestly, apart from the two Bond girls and a guest appearance by Dr. Who himself as a snake handling henchman, the other entries in the series looked more exciting from the introduction.
What’s Up, Tiger Lily?
July 26th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink
Pica
July 12th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink
It was a perfectly ordinary thing for me to satisfy a hunger pang by taking a handful of coins from my pocket, stuffing them into my mouth and chewing away. They were sweet, like candy, but partway through them I realized I had forgotten to check whether or not any of the quarters were the bicentennial version
that I collected for my mother. (She kept some in a fancy box and I took so many as a child that years later I presented her with a bag full of them, and though she was probably too preoccupied to recognize my gesture, I never stopped.) None that I regurgitated were, but a few stuck out as shiny examples of a new mint of silver dollars. I might have made these up because I couldn’t picture the real thing, but one whose edges were already gnawed around had the image of Rosalynn Carter, whom someone beside me pointed out as “Rose”—I wasn’t sure of that name, either, until I confirmed Jimmy’s use of it in another article.
that I collected for my mother. (She kept some in a fancy box and I took so many as a child that years later I presented her with a bag full of them, and though she was probably too preoccupied to recognize my gesture, I never stopped.) None that I regurgitated were, but a few stuck out as shiny examples of a new mint of silver dollars. I might have made these up because I couldn’t picture the real thing, but one whose edges were already gnawed around had the image of Rosalynn Carter, whom someone beside me pointed out as “Rose”—I wasn’t sure of that name, either, until I confirmed Jimmy’s use of it in another article.And the metallophagia? Either a biological response to my recent bloodwork indicating a slightly lower-than-reference result for mean cell hemoglobin (13.4 vs. 14.0-17.0), or a symbolic one for paying too much to get the car fixed again.
菊川怜
July 8th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink
Sometimes I check out what’s playing on the ファミリー劇場 retro channel because once I happened upon Ultraseven there and hope that I’ll get lucky again with an old favorite like オトナの男, too, but last week they broadcast a 2005 crime series called 新米事件記者・三咲 featuring an actress who struck me as an older version of my niece. I’m usually way off1 with these connections, but I insist upon them, like the lead singer of the Blow Monkeys and the kid who plays Jason Todd on Titans, and this time I had a captive audience, especially a few days later when a Godzilla marathon included Final Wars:
I think it’s great to resemble someone that’s come before, not only because of the odds against it (or for simulation conspiracies), but also as it’s proof the model was successful enough the first time around for the designers to bring it back.
1The Barbarella and Cleopatra 2001-like track in the long-broken link starts around 3:48, and how I’ve missed SPEED☆STAR! Off to the CD boxes I go!
Tremors
July 4th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink
We moved into a new house on 15070 Hazel St., from my memory of the new front door the wife ordered but for some reason left standing inside, white with shiny gold accents, including the slot for mail. Soon enough we’d discover why the previous owners were so eager to close: beneath the laminate wood was a green graboid-like monster, and a room connected to the entry opened to a vast underground facility. We fought off its breaches the first night and realized it had the magical ability to repair the floors, hiding evidence of its existence. I awoke on a makeshift island of blankets and flattened boxes and saw Sheila on the couch and asked how she had appeared seemingly overnight, or if we had been in Asia all along. And as unwise as it may have been under the circumstances, she invited over the entire family to assess the situation. I suggested using it to rescind the purchase, as surely this constituted an adequate failure to disclose. Hopping around in boxes kept our housemate from detecting our movements, as did traveling through the circuitous ventilation system suspended from the high ceiling. [That’s the best Eraserhead, Mountain Dew and The Silmarillion could concoct. Signs of water damage along the floorboards.]
The Mulholland Dream
July 4th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink
I still hold to the idea that Lynch packaged his rejected Twin Peaks follow-up with the “it was all just a dream” finish as an FU to the studio.
The night terror Ben’s experiencing in Evil (which reminds me a lot of Millennium) has got way too much of the demonic makeup for me: my latest one was just a dark outline of a face pressed against the small window in the door. It seemed pointless keeping it out, because the back of my apartment was always open to a stairwell shared with my neighbors, so I tried a frightening demonstration of martial arts. The door knob turned and the figure entered, still only a shadow.
At least it wasn’t like the kind I’ve been having the past few nights where all I’m doing is looking at screens, watching football on TV—surely a low point of my imagination, even if it was from my perspective as an unprepared player—scrolling through map locations between San Diego and the Mexican border, monitoring the child’s video content that included a Monty Python-narrated skit in which bodies chased one another lewdly inside a couple’s coat, and playing a Pokémon game together. There was a Chansey to catch, but I missed her.