I'm In Love With Illusions

Aria 4 is mine at last! All it took was a 30 minute trip to a B&N in another part of the metro complex. And we were both pretty amazed at how much better their manga selection was. It wasn't necessarily bigger but it had a better array of titles and volumes. And the staff didn't treat you like you were a slow witted idiot for still reading comic books (you're losing a valuable customer over this B&N that pops up on the way home from work - and the fact that you don't stock any part of the store very well doesn't help). So, we ended up spending way more money than had been originally intended. Issues? Aria 3 (along with 7 other various volumes) is still in transit and won't be here for the next couple of days.

Brooksie Talks!. Perhaps, all right - certainly, not as dynamic as Garbo Talks(!) but it's a nice peek at a speaking Louise Brooks that isn't the Windy Riley movie, the Richard Leacock interviews (which you can watch on the Pandora's Box supplemental disk in the form of the documentary Lulu in Berlin), or the Kevin Brownlow (I think?) interviews for the Hollywood documentary. But the clip doesn't alleviate any notions that the film is pap. Cat fight over an ugly man - that hasn't been played to death over the generations at all.

Further Brooksie related talk - and truly a weird note on what has and hasn't survived the silent era. Brooks' second role on film (and her first one for which she received listing in the credits) was The American Venus, a comedy about beauty pageants set in Atlantic City. It is presumed to be lost - but it's trailer is totally available. Actually, I believe that another trailer for this film was on youtube for awhile - it was either tinted or two-strip color.

Silent prospects for March? Totally dismal. It's one of the few times I can look at the schedule and roundly say that I've seen most of it. But Don Juan comes on toward the end of the month and I am slightly excited to see it. April, though, looks great.

There is a black-and-blue knot on my ankle that is the size and consistency of a golf ball. Out of the last four days, I have twisted that ankle on three of them. It's fine right now (this is, after all, my second glass of wine) but that poor ankle is in terrible condition. Good news: my back has stopped hurting but that can't last for long.

There is no Gurren Lagann for the next two weeks! This shouldn't distress me but it does. It has, at least up to this point, turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. The boyfriend has seen the whole thing and insists that it ends badly, but I'll hold out judgment. It has been forever since I actually enjoyed an anime. At least I had my Monday shot of Marmalade Boy.

We almost have a media server. It just needs a bit more hardware. But the hard drives are in and I was able to transfer all the stuff that I've saved but have not been ready to watch from my desk. It freed up over 30 GB. And I could only think of more ways to fill it up. Perhaps if I had another couple iTunes card...?

Current Bleach? It's blah punctuated by good moments. Oh Yumichika...

I received my Garbo set on Wednesday. I've technically watched all three movies (minus passing out during the last 15/20 minutes of The Tempest) and I'll probably sprinkle my impressions of the other two movies throughout the week. Overall, I'm quite happy with the set. The print for The Mysterious Lady is sometimes rather dismal, but it maintains decent detail and grayscale (no blasted/whited out features or details) so it is passable. I'm still considering getting the Keaton set (which contains his first three MGM movies ), but I'm really leaning toward picking up a Garbo biography (in particular Barry Paris' - in no small part because I love and adore his Louise Brooks bio). Payday is at the end of the week...so I'll have to see.

Erica Freeman over at Okazu gives her insights into the issues that come up when publishing, selling, and buying manga and how it is often a strained, unsatisfactory mess for all involved. It certainly contains a ton of food for thought but one of the things that stuck out at me was the importance of the pre-order. It makes obvious sense that "no one knows you want something unless you tell them that you do" but how many people do it? And could you have even guessed what kind of affect that would have on the order the distributer wants from the publisher?

I'll have more thoughts later (aka when I'm not dealing with post-work mind fry)

Oddly, Amazon has re-listed the fourth volume of Suppli. I can't actually remember when it was originally supposed to come out but I believe it was either early September or October. Would it be re-solicited so quickly? I'd like some sort of confirmation before getting my hopes up. I don't want to act on it yet, lest this be some sort of mistake.