what's been ups
Oct. 28th, 2015 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davemerrillHaven't posted here in a while other than announcements of Things I Have Posted Elsewhere like blogs and podcasts and Stupid Comics, yes there was a new Stupid Comics last week, about M.A.S.K., and there will be one this week.
Um, Saturday it rained and we went out to Kitchener/Waterloo and went to the antique mall. I spent too much money on some Xabungle toys that were sold in American toy stores in the 80s; that's part of what I like about them, Japanese cartoons were such a cultural force that they inserted themselves, without benefit of TV broadcasts or promotion of any kind, strictly on the hunger of American kids for robot toys and the bulky overstock of Taiwanese toy manufactures, they inserted themselves into America.
I'm pleased way out of proportion to have the Irongear toy again, and the Blue Gale toy is just icing on the cake. After antiquing, we went to the Mennonite buffet place in St. Jacobs and stuffed ourselves, and then noodled our way back to Toronto. Sunday the sun came out and we went walking in the York Regional Forest, took some movies back to Eyesore, and did some furniture re-arranging thanks to a TV stand somebody in our building didn't want any more. Our TV is a little higher up now and beneath it, we now have room for the stereo receiver and the BD player and the Wii, and that cleared up some more room for books. We're still sort of getting rid of books; I have too many books and we have too many bookshelves and it makes it difficult for us to display framed art, or get to power outlets, etc. We've been shedding books for a while and we'll likely shed more.
Kind of on a lark, I put in for some panels at SFContario, the fall literary SF convention in Toronto. I'm going to be on a panel about cult movies and another one about building fandom in the face of increasing fragmentation and segmentation. I'd submitted a panel about anime like Captain Future & Lensman based on American SF but I think it got in a little late in the process. Anyway it's in November and it's a convention we've attended a few times just to hang out in the Anime North suite, so I'm looking forward to maybe having a little more involvement and getting a little more connected in a more social capacity; i.e. hanging out with some people every once in a while. I'm kind of hesitant about my ability to get along with the lit SF crowd, as I don't read new SF and am openly contemptuous of many of the teapot tempests the lit SF world has managed to gin up in the past few years, but on the other hand, it's good to get out and meet new people every once in a while. So there's that.
Halloween is this Saturday and I think we're going to go out to some kind of haunted attraction out in Port Union and see what the scary's like. Sunday is the Anime North staff meeting and I should probably show up to this one and take photos of myself signing in at the staff registration table, so that next May when I go to pick up my badge at staff registration and they don't have my badge, I can ask them why the hell am I attending staff meetings if they can't give me my damn badge at the damn con? I ask you.
Um, Saturday it rained and we went out to Kitchener/Waterloo and went to the antique mall. I spent too much money on some Xabungle toys that were sold in American toy stores in the 80s; that's part of what I like about them, Japanese cartoons were such a cultural force that they inserted themselves, without benefit of TV broadcasts or promotion of any kind, strictly on the hunger of American kids for robot toys and the bulky overstock of Taiwanese toy manufactures, they inserted themselves into America.
I'm pleased way out of proportion to have the Irongear toy again, and the Blue Gale toy is just icing on the cake. After antiquing, we went to the Mennonite buffet place in St. Jacobs and stuffed ourselves, and then noodled our way back to Toronto. Sunday the sun came out and we went walking in the York Regional Forest, took some movies back to Eyesore, and did some furniture re-arranging thanks to a TV stand somebody in our building didn't want any more. Our TV is a little higher up now and beneath it, we now have room for the stereo receiver and the BD player and the Wii, and that cleared up some more room for books. We're still sort of getting rid of books; I have too many books and we have too many bookshelves and it makes it difficult for us to display framed art, or get to power outlets, etc. We've been shedding books for a while and we'll likely shed more.
Kind of on a lark, I put in for some panels at SFContario, the fall literary SF convention in Toronto. I'm going to be on a panel about cult movies and another one about building fandom in the face of increasing fragmentation and segmentation. I'd submitted a panel about anime like Captain Future & Lensman based on American SF but I think it got in a little late in the process. Anyway it's in November and it's a convention we've attended a few times just to hang out in the Anime North suite, so I'm looking forward to maybe having a little more involvement and getting a little more connected in a more social capacity; i.e. hanging out with some people every once in a while. I'm kind of hesitant about my ability to get along with the lit SF crowd, as I don't read new SF and am openly contemptuous of many of the teapot tempests the lit SF world has managed to gin up in the past few years, but on the other hand, it's good to get out and meet new people every once in a while. So there's that.
Halloween is this Saturday and I think we're going to go out to some kind of haunted attraction out in Port Union and see what the scary's like. Sunday is the Anime North staff meeting and I should probably show up to this one and take photos of myself signing in at the staff registration table, so that next May when I go to pick up my badge at staff registration and they don't have my badge, I can ask them why the hell am I attending staff meetings if they can't give me my damn badge at the damn con? I ask you.
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Date: 2015-10-29 03:15 am (UTC)Gakken re-naming Mospeda toys to sneak them past Harmony Gold. Spencer Gifts and the oddball vinyls. Buying $80 Bandai Godaikin toys for $15 at Key Bee Toys.
Geeze, it was a shockingly golden time in hindsight, huh?
no subject
Date: 2015-10-29 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-29 10:39 pm (UTC)To quote Shaft: SHEEEEEEEIIIIITTTTT.
And then there was Bandai's confusing Battle of the Planets attempt, with the Gatchaman II stuff.
sigh.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-30 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-30 01:58 am (UTC)It's not the things the cat knocks over (not that I've had a cat for decades), it's the things the cat chews on, like antenna and fins and stuff like that. THAT is a concern. I would need lots of enclosed cases if we got a cat again. :)
On the convention front, I keep having the urge to return to Capricon in Chicago, still going after all these years. But like you, I have NO connection with current lit. SF fandom. I have no real interest in having a connection, and I stay well away from all whatever nonsense drifts into my view. I just want to read good books. Or so-so books that are fun like the Captain Future stories. Boy I regret missing out on those collected volumes when they were reasonable in price. And I REALLY regret missing those Lensman reprint TPBs from 15 or so years ago. Those looked lovely, nice solid oversized... argh.
When I'm rich I'm going to start a reprint company and license books I love and put them in sweet hardback and acid free paper and stuff. And they'll never go out of print to piss off the scalpers. Maybe I could pick up Wonder 3 even. Those idiots. :)