Sorry for not giving news in so long. Just been busy really *s* Between work, crossing fingers for Federer at Wimbledon (try typing while you do that, I dare you! Oh, and while I'm at it: Dear Roger, thank you for the wonderful fortnight and for this great victory but please, no more 4 hours+ thrillers in finale, I had stomach cramps the whole evening and my nerves were all but shot for the following days. Thank you.) and getting somewhat back at Ancient Worlds (sort of, really, I'll see where this whole thing gets me). Oh yeah, and I'm back in the saddle for the FF XII walkthrough which I have abandoned somewhat over the last couple of months....

Anyhoo, a few things that I am about to/ have ticked off my list:

- I'm almost done with scanning the latest issue of Shel'tter which should be online this weekend

- The review for Red Cliff part 1 is online (thank you Beth for the beta-reading!), along with the picspam (here for the complete - but access-restricted - one and there for the somewhat smaller, but public one)

- Just posted the picspam for the second installment in the Sasori (Female Prisoner: Scorpion) series here (I'll make a smaller, public picspam alongside the review when I have that one ready)

- Started translating the first book in an illustrated history of Japan series. I am still wondering if it will be worth making longer summaries of what's in there, but at any rate, I'll posting short notes in English about it and the first one, on Paleolithic Japan, is here; threads will change according to the period, but I'll post links here anyway

- Am currently posting Masaya Kato picspams from the KiraKira Kenshui series over at a chinese discussion board dedicated to him. But the access is public so I'll post the complete list of links (there's one thread per episode) here if anyone wants to have a look ;-)

Oh yeah, one of the other things I've been busy with IRL is that I found out early this month that Nara (Nara Prefecture, Japan) will celebrate next year its 1300th anniversary of becoming capital of Japan. They will hold events throughout the year. And since it's been a while I've been thinking of going to Japan within the next few years, I thought I might just change my plans and go a bit earlier than first planned *g* : Nara was definitely a place I wanted to visit (I am a history geek, after all) and it will be easy to travel to Osaka and Kyoto from there. I will probably stay in that area for a week and in Tokyo for another one - at least that's the early plans I have in mind

So sorry I went AWOL for almost two weeks, but I caught a cold. In June. After I went through winter without even sneezing *sigh* I just CAN'T do things the way normal people do, it seems. It was pretty nasty and for all I know, it might have been Swine flu. If it was though, it doesn't seem I've passed it on to anyone. I have a good idea when I caught whatever I got, and after that I've only been with colleagues and a few friends, and haven't been in close quarters with other people until I was really ill, and the couple of people I know who also got ill actually became so before me. Anyway, whatever it was, I must have had a touch of hay fever thrown in the mix, because I would feel worse at my workplace (my eyes start to sting, my nose runs constantly, etc.) and I know from experience there must be something growing there that I'm more sensitive to, as I've had hay fever symptoms at work around this time of the year since I've been there. And of course, the whole thing would block my sinuses which led to heachache after headache.....


Anyway, I'm better now. I've managed to scan the whole of Madame Figaro Japan February issue which is in answer to a few requests made over at jmagazinescans - I just need to photoshop the lot and upload it, so the matter of a couple of days, normally *fingers crossed* Started also taking screencaps from Red Cliff part 1 which I have now seen two times; I must say I've come to really love Nakamura Shidou (Japanese kabuki and movie actor) in this: he just has these great facial expressions that had me laugh and want to hug him simultaneously. Generally speaking, I found the generals more entertaining than the leads (I think John Woo seriously overindulged in his "men coming together" fetish to the point that it becomes distracting in the middle section of the movie) with the exception of Chang Chen who has a more complex character and plays the nuances well


I've also seen Female Prisoner #701 - Jailhouse 41 again which I'll probably review right after Red Cliff part 1. And I've seen the last part of North and South over on BBC Four and must say it was one great episode! I know I owe salimbol to write at least some details about it but it will come in another post - it's already getting pretty late :p

Another thing that I'll owe her and quite a few other people are more Masaya Kato pics - I WILL get to it, in fact I *am* getting to it *hint hint* especially since I have more dvds coming in over the next couple of weeks AND he'll be in a new tv show starting next week already (in a guise we haven't been used to see him in so far, as he warned in his blog. Unfortunately I don't have any good quality picture to show, but let's just say that when I saw a tiny illustration of what he meant by that, I spit my tea all over the keyboard :p). Now let's hope that KeyHole TV does its job this time around and that I actually get to see it when it is broadcasted on TV Tokyo *shake fist*


( Because I'm such a tease and it's just too funny not to share )

Posted the review of the 2CD+DVD re-release of Radiohead's OK Computer over there

Things decidedly went against me last night. First, hot on the trail of salimbol's recommendation, I was looking into getting the North and South BBC mini-series. Only, I found out they had just started showing it on BBC Four.....five minutes before the first part ended!!!!!!! That was enough to make me want to pull a few hair

Then, I was planning to watch Red Cliff part I (at last!): now, I've bought that absolutely magnificent box they did in Japan, but it doesn't have English subtitles (only Chinese and Japanese - unlike some of the other Chinese blockbusters which also included English subs). So I ordered a dirty cheap version off Ebay which included English subs to watch once in order to get familiar with the story, then to pass over to friends. Only it turns out they've sent part II instead of part I (although the cover pictures are different, it only says it's "Red Cliff", not which part it is), so my whole "let's drool over enjoy having Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Chen Chang together on my screen" plan went down the drain the minute I popped the DVD into my computer player :-( Which I guess will teach me about the consequences of not caring whether or not what I order is a bootleg....

So no Red Cliff for probably another 10 days or so. Oh well, I guess I'll focus on The Wolves, which I've just received, as well as the Seven Samurai Criterion Special Edition instead, at least for the time being. So not that bad all things considered :p

On the other hand, what totally made my day was this report over at Outcast Cinema of an annoucement from Criterion Collection who are goning to publish not one but a box set of five Nikkatsu Action/Noir movies (and all that for an extremely reasonable price!). And they are gonna release it the month of my birthday to boot!!!!!