Part I: One of the differences most visitors to Japan point out sooner or later is the reality that most public transportation in Tokyo as well as throughout Japan starts to shut down at midnight to start up again after 5 AM. With trains and subways the reasoning is to perform thorough daily maintenance. The fact of the matter is they do run on time. Apparently the stationmaster will even issue a late pass if a train is late so you don’t get reprimanded for being late at your job. I guess it’s harder to justify busses not running either. It’s often rumored that perhaps taxi drivers used political influence to make sure no alternative to taxis run at night, but that might be a popular myth.
“Hong Kong’s Hot Toys has announced the Batman Cosbaby collection which features seven characters as follows: Batman (Classic), Batman (Modern), Joker, Batgirl, Catwoman, Robin the Boy Wonder and one secret character to be revealed.”
As far back as I could remember as a child the advertising for Twix cereal always centered around the fact that “Twix are for Kids” this taunting the poor bunny associated with the brand. In 1984 things changed and there was a campaign to allow kids if they wanted to share their cereal with the rabbit — shown above is a promotional button from that historic election.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 1, 2008 in Comic Books
Leif Peng has scanned in a comic on the life of Samuel Gompers from an issue of Boys’ Life magazine from 1958. In an era of outsourced jobs it’s some what sad to look back at just fifty years ago when someone with a blue collar job could earn a decent living.
I’m only guessing (due to my lack of Japanese language skills) but it looks like Garbage Bag Artwork that chronicles people turning their every day garbage bags into bunny rabbits! It’s funny how just adding a small bit of artwork can make something so mundane so much more interesting.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 31, 2008 in Animation
The advert above with the catchy jingle is for Um Bongo which is a “tropical fruit juice drink” which became popular in the UK in the early 90s. In addition to wonderfully fluid animation what makes this spot great is the music was produced by Andre Jacquemin who worked with Monty Python back in the day. Sadly I discovered this spot because it seems that this beverage is on the verge of extinction:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 31, 2008 in Comic Books
I just came across an treasure trove of Anti-American political cartoons from China which date from 1958 through 1960. Shown above is a cartoon making fun of NASA after the USSR launch of Sputnik in 1957. What’s interesting about this selection of comics is that you see references to President Eisenhower but also references to those out of the scene like General Douglas MacArthur and Winston Churchill.
I think I’ve seen this design kicking around recently, but it’s never too late to share something that you like! In this case what attracts me to Helbotica is my love of typography and giant robots:
Walking home this morning I spotted the above poster which immediately reminded me of the Reservoir Dogs from a few years ago, peering closer I got very excited to see two of my favorite tough guy actors Robert DeNiro and Al Pachino teamed up. Righteous Kill is due out on September 12th and it’s directed by Jon Avnet who’s claim to fame is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, so it’s hard for me to tell how well he’ll do with the crime genre. Frankly with DeNiro and Pachino I would have preferred Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino as director — here’s a trailer of the film:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 30, 2008 in Science
This is scary, I always assumed that our galaxy was just that — a solo act. It seems that part of our galaxy contains smaller galaxies which were torn apart by the Milky Way:
“Astronomers have discovered nearly a dozen new stellar rivers—strings of moving stars—over the disk of the Milky Way. The streams, which seem to represent smaller galaxies torn apart by our own, come from scans of the velocities of about a quarter million stars in our galaxy made for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.”
“We built this fiberglass replica landspeeder from the ground up on a custom aluminum chassis. The electric drive system is capable of a top speed around 25 mph. The speeder is the same size as the original, and can travel several miles on a single battery charge.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 29, 2008 in Animation
I always preferred the Muppet TV show to any of the movies (the humor works better on the small screen) — but so much of what made that show work was the contemporary humor and the amazing guests. While it still looks this show may or may not happen, but it would be interesting to see how they’d re-invent the show:
“The Jim Henson-created characters may be on their way back thanks to a new Disney Film. In the movie, written by Forgetting Sarah Marshall star and writer Jason Segel, the Muppets reunite to save their studio with one last variety show. Should the film go well, it opens up the possibility of a television programme, also written by 28-year-old Segel.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 28, 2008 in Television
A few days ago I noticed that there was a film being shot in my neighborhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The first clue was that there was quite a few retro cars and a storefront on my block was redecorated to look like a bad check cashing establishment. So a friend found my story and blogged it herself trying to identify the mystery film. Well a few friends solved the riddle online and it turns out that what’s being shot is in fact a TV show called Life on Mars which is a remake of an award winning BBC science fiction show! The show is suppose to air on ABC on October 9th so I’ll have to look for scenes featuring my apartment building! Here’s the opening titles from the BBC show to give you a taste of the show:
Even though I’m a vegetarian the sight of this cute little lion cosplay figurine brought a smile to my face! I guess if I buy this goodie I’ll have to pretend that her meat chop is made out of tofu:
“In the Fate/Tiger Colosseum game, the cast of Fate/Stay Night is shrunken, deformed, and shifted into toddler-like versions of themselves. Archer is lanky in his full-size form but he’s a chubby little punk in the Colosseum. Similarly, Saber’s normally lean and mean but in her Coloseum turn, she does “Lion Cosplay” and whacks her enemies with a bone-inl meat chop. ”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 27, 2008 in Animation
I’m not 100% sure what the cute pup has to to do with Lucky Star, but the above video is a commercial for the Lucky Star OVA which will come out in Japan on September 26th:
“The official Japanese website of the Lucky Star anime franchise is streaming a television commercial for the Lucky Star OVA, a new adaptation of Kagami Yoshimizu’s four-panel gag manga about four girls’ everyday life. The site posted the designs of the characters Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Nanako in fantasy adventure outfits. It also posted the designs of Konata cosplaying as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Yuki in a witch’s hat and Kagami as the virtual idol Miku Hatsune, as depicted on the anime’s jacket cover. ”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 26, 2008 in Japanese TV
Yeah it’s just me and my penguin pal hanging out, going to the mall and doing lunch. That’s perfectly normal — hey why are you looking at me like that? The above cute commercials are for Suica which is a smart card used in Japan. Here are a few more cute penguin spots that they’ve done:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 26, 2008 in Comic Books
I just love the retro styling of this Batman Alarm Clock Radio with Bat-Signal. The killer feature of this alarm clock is the ability to flash a bat signal — although I can’t figure out what sort of dark knight fanboy would require a snooze time (lazy slackers not worthy of Batman I tell ya!).
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 25, 2008 in Star Wars
I have to say that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is looking quite good, as shown in the above preview from Mahalo.com. As a Star Wars fanboy what’s neat about this game is that LucasArts is also putting together a tie-in novel, action figures and a comic book to compliment the game. Even cooler yet is that in addition to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the Wii — the game will also be available on the iPhone! The game is suppose to come out on September 16th.
“Hello Kitty products never before seen in the United States are some of the many products on view at Felissimo Design Gallery in Midtown as part of an exhibit called Japan C. Director Haruko Smith says it’s a showcase of contemporary Japanese culture, specifically Japan’s “4 Cs”: cute, clever, creative, and cool! “Japanese are really into little things. We call them zaka,” Smith explained. ”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 25, 2008 in Comic Books
On sure anyone can churn out a Lovecraft comic book! But revisiting Edgar Allen Poe takes it to the next level — and what I like about Edgar Allen Poo is that the team behind the book does it with a sense of wit. The second book in the Edgar Allen Poo series is due out this week and you can pre-order the tomb – err tome – from Amazon:
“It’s a clash of the titans as the forces of the Nightmare King collide with the armies of Terra Somnium in a battle to decide the fate of the Dream Child! In the end, Edgar Allan Poo must stand alone to rescue his mother and prevent the dark lord from trapping him in the realm of dreams… forever.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 24, 2008 in Science
This is an interesting although some what fuzzy article which claims that some Russian scientists think that the work being done at CERN could allow visitors from the future to see what life was like back in 2008:
“Physicists around the world are excitedly awaiting the start up of the £4.65 billion Large Hadron Collider, LHC – the most powerful atom-smasher ever built – which is supposed to shed new light on the particles and forces at work in the cosmos and reproduce conditions that date to near the Big Bang of creation.
Prof Irina Aref’eva and Dr Igor Volovich, mathematical physicists at the Steklov Mathematical Institute in Moscow believe that the vast experiment at CERN, the European particle physics centre near Geneva in Switzerland, may turn out to be the world’s first time machine, reports New Scientist. The debut in early summer could provide a landmark because travelling into the past is only possible – if it is possible at all – as far back as the point of creation of the first time machine. That means 2008 could become “Year Zero” for temporal travel, they argue.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 24, 2008 in Cinema, Tech
This is pretty amazing: It turns out that the song Daisy Bell which HAL sings in 2001: A Space Odyssey was based on one of the first songs that a computer was programmed to sing with a synthetic voice. It seems that Arthur C. Clarke was visiting Bell Labs back in the early 60s when he came across a demonstration of the new technology!
