For those of you following the ordeal of Camel’s Andrew Latimer that I detailed a bit below this, I received another update from his soulmate, Susan Hoover, via Camelproductions.com:
“Day 90 post transplant:
Up until about 3 weeks ago, Andrew was doing fantastically. None of the expected side-effects had occurred and he was released from hospital just before Xmas. He certainly couldn’t run a marathon, but we enjoyed the holidays with a new, and very grateful, perspective. Andrew began to slowly return to work, getting in a few good hours of writing and recording each day. It looked as if he really would “sail through” this intense and aggressive treatment…
Things took a turn in early February and he has suffered a bit of a setback, being readmitted to hospital where he remains until the doctors can “put him right” (as his chief consultant put it). I am reassured on a daily basis that they are as optimistic as ever so I do not worry unduly. But I have been honest with you all from the start and will continue to be so by telling you that he is a bit down-spirited, and quite taxed in his energy. If I could take his place, I would. How many of us wouldn’t offer ourselves for someone we love? But, it doesn’t work that way. This is Andrew’s path and none of us can alter it. We can, however, continue to send him our support. I know for certain that all those candles burned an energy straight to his heart and left a light. He could use a few more, I think, to lift his spirits. If you can, please light an Hour Candle for him and spend just awhile sending him your unique, positive energy. No matter how strong we are, an indefinite stay in a hospital can set the dark thoughts in motion. Throw a little light if you can.
Thank you for your many emails of kind words and concern. I’m sorry I can’t reply and hope you will accept my thanks.
Ever grateful,
Susan Hoover”
This is very sad news, not only because of my memories of the band, and especially of Andrew, but because such a fine human being is suffering so. Please keep him in your thoughts and even if you don’t have a candle, do send him your positive energy and hopes for a full recovery. There is a keen absence of kindness and decency these days so please support the ones who exemplify that goodness.
To aid you, here are two videos that showcase the quality of his, and his band’s, music. First up is “Lies” taken from the album Nude; this is followed up with “Long Goodbyes” from Stationary Traveller, the title track of which can be seen in the original “Hour Candle” post below, and features the same actress from that video. Guitar players take note!
Recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon on May 11, 1984, “Lies” details the battle-worn and convalescing title character ruminating in his sick-bed; the lyrics are written by Susan:
Tell me no lies,
has peace arrived…
Or, is this some kind of joke?
What a surprise,
you don’t realise…
There’s some things you don’t own.
Can you disguise,
can you simplify…
This change you put me through?
Can you revive,
and will I survive…
This life you’ve brought me to?
The “Long Goodbyes” data is unknown to me but probably dates from the same time period as the Stationary Traveller’s album’s release, 1984. (Nude was originally produced in 1981.)
Hope you enjoyed, and please keep Andrew in your thoughts tonight.
It’s (thankfully) come to my attention that the pictures are a bit too large and protruding into the right-hand column. Since everything looks fine on my widescreen monitor, I couldn’t tell when I tested it! Looks normal to me LOL So if anyone does note something amiss (or not working), please let me know? I’ll experiment with re-sizing and hope that it works. I just checked my laptop and can see that things do need adjusting, so I’ll be fiddling with it.
Speaking of bugs, I’m aware that the top menus are fidgety, disappearing whenever their text overlaps text beneath it. This came with the template, so apparently there’s nothing I can do about it. However, the same menus are accessible from the side-columns, so no big deal there. I’ll contact the designer to see if anything can be done about it. In the meantime, I’ll hope that it doesn’t interfere with your viewing pleasure
Happy day! I fnally got my Elfen Lied Nyu and Nana figurines today! I have to thank Joseph from TokyoHunter for acquiring these for me just before he shut his service down last August. That was a close call, as these were available only in Japan. Just issued in January, the’re already sold out, and an eBay auction today is closing with the pair up to $300! (EDIT: Winning bid: $533!!!) I paid $118 way back when. I’m really glad that I was able to attain figures from my most-favorite* (and first) anime, as I don’t think any were made before. Could be wrong but I don’t dare check LOL
Only if you ordered the pair of figures did you get the optional parts: for Nyu, a Lucy face and hairpiece, and for Nana, a headpiece without the blue ”papa’s ribbon”. (Since she’d never seen a tie before, this is what she called it. Aww…)
Some pics:
A rear view of them against The Sandman library in the background:
…and a shot of Lucy and Nana, with optional pieces attached/replaced (apologies for the excessive flash):
*-regarding “most-favorite anime”… It’s human nature to arrange things in lists. But every-so-often we come across some things that defy categorization or being ranked above another. So it is with my most beloved animes (among other things). Presently Elfen Lied, Chobits, Rozen Maiden, Higurashi no Naku Kori Ni (and its sequel, Kai), Air, and Kanon have moved beyond comparing with others, even in spite of their minor flaws. Below these are my “favorites” which include some near-perfect anime such as Death Note. Despite my favorites’ high estimation, they just don’t have that magical “oomph” that skyrockets them into the Special Place. But they are top-raked nonetheless.
I don’t have room to list all of my favorites here LOL. Suffice to say that I want to own DVDs of all of them rather than rely on fansubs. It’s best to support the hobby and industry, anyway
Speaking of Kanon (well, I was), I finally changed Ayu from her winged-backpack-wearing persona into the winged aspect as shown in the YouTube clip below. She’s super-kawaii either way
…now, THAT is cute LOL
Since we’re on the subject of figures, here’s one pic of Ignis the White, probably the most elaborate figure I own. I just received her in January too, after ordering her in MAY :-O
Ignis wasn’t featured in an anime (she’s a character from a game), but one look at her and I had to have her! Many of the pieces are detachable and though I haven’t removed any yet (because she looks too stunning as she is LOL), she makes for a wonderful work of art in this very dynamic pose.
I really have to stay away from anything related to spending money on anime now. Man, what a financial sinkhole! The only girls I’m going to be looking out for are the figures from Kanon. There are just some things you can’t do without! And Makoto should arrive next month
Anything that moves me I move towards. That’s called “compromise”.
I just came across this wonderful YouTube clip that features an extended version of the OP (Opening Theme) from Kanon and had to share it here. By now everyone within earshot knows that this anime is the one to have affected me most deeply; it is an exceptional story of relationships, the super-natural, and miracles. Last week I was notified that the second DVD and collector’s box had been delayed (if not shelved; who knows? They aren’t telling.), and was profoundly disappointed as I’d been looking forward to it for months. So, I’d like to share this little “tribute” to give you an idea of how excellent the series is, if this “type” of anime is your thing. But it really foils type-casting or genre (thank God). It has more to do with our being human, and our dealing with (or refusing to) our foibles and faults, than fitting into a comfy (and lazy) niche.
If this is your first foray into the animated world of Japan’s finest studio (IMHO Kyoto Animation), just examine as much detail as you can: the expressions, the fluid animation, the sheer emotion that these supposed “cartoons” convey. They aren’t cartoons at all; they are actors in all but the human sense. Simply put, this is the finest display of such proportion and depth that I’ve come across. Without knowing anything of the story or dialog you won’t get the full impact, but it is so beautiful nonetheless. (I recommend going directly to YouTube in order to see its full glory in Widescreen, if you want to see it as it’s meant to be seen.)
But first, a serious warning if you do venture into YouTube looking for more: You do NOT want this anime spoiled! And most Kanon clips there have spoilers, since it’s near-impossible to make any without a few. Even the one I include below has some very minor ones. There are so many plot twists and surprises (not to mention shocks) that if you intend to watch this in the future, do yourself a big favor and don’t spoil yourself. It’s critical to the enjoyment of this Story. That being said, please do enjoy this; I’ll edit this to add the lyrics below it:
Now that you’ve been warned, here’s the direct link to the Widescreen version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=83TH6lC2RpU But watch it soon, they tend to pull anime vids quickly (as in the Elfen Lied one below). Those short-sighted companies should realize that these aren’t done for profit but to promote their product.
The lyrics for “Last Regrets” follow; the song is done by Ayana, and words taken from Key’s game version of Kanon, composed by Shinji Orito and Kazuya Takase:
I won’t say thank you
I’ll always keep it inside
It won’t be a sad goodbye
Silently, the aftermath of the dream rises
Always, always embracing
The fragments that rained into my hands
I already had the strength
To keep smiling to the end
Good morning
Waking is dazzlingly sad
I’m glad that our weakness
Wouldn’t let us say goodbye
Like love, this routine kindness between us
Blooms like a flower
The low clouds, the silence waiting for the wind
I can no longer hear them
Always, always embracing
The fragments that rained into my hands
I already had the strength
To keep smiling to the end
I won’t cry anymore, I won’t cry anymore, I won’t cry…
*******
Here’s a little pic of Ayu’s recent PVC figure, just for good measure
Some visitors may not have checked anime out before this; once you get past the apparent Western bias of the character designs a good many of these stories can be seen in the light of independent film or art house movies, only animated. The series I enjoy are mature, thought-provoking, and emotional in ways that I’ve rarely seen in our media. So, expand the horizon a little and try something different! (And, BUY the DVDs!)
No, that isn’t a remnant from Wordpress’ generic latin text. It’s from “Lilium”, the Opening theme from Elfen Lied (see pics lower down on this page, but the Youtube vid doesn’t work anymore -for now), and is a line expressing the resistance of temptation, which I successfully accomplished after working the entire weekend through today just to find The Perfect Portal Page. And… I found it! And, ironically enough, it’s a “Lilium” theme that looks gorgeous! (Well, I am a bit biased LOL)
After searching dozens of template sites and testing almost as many themes featuring the girls from Kanon, Air, and Chobits, all of which failed in one way or another (either skewed too far left or right, poor coloring, insanely difficult coding, etc etc etc), found this beautiful one just as I was about to give up. That bed just looked soooo tempting! But stubbornness prevailed; I’ve been up all night wrestling with Pagebreeze Professional, which for some reason has gone all buggy on me and wouldn’t let the links work, erased coding at random, and in general acted like a royal pain in the ass. Finally I just bit the bullet and uploaded the modified template, and all the links worked (thank God)!
I hope you enjoy the poor (former) portal’s replacement; I wanted something that looked classy and attractive and fitting, and “Lilium” is the absolute best out there for my intents and purposes, as explained on its page. It’s now 10:30AM and I’ve been up since yesterday working on this, so now it’s time for sleep. And food. And celebration. Beer will do. But not necessarily in that order
Now where’s my crown of life??? Maybe in my dreams…
I couldn’t take wrestling with Fingal anymore, so I sent him and his bugs on their way. Poor old fella. If we’re so lucky as to find publication, you’ll read much more about him in the pages of UNBOUND
In the meantime, I’ve found, after many hours of searching, a fine theme by Milo IIIIVII (among his many others) to use in place of Fingal’s drafty old Cave. I intend to re-do the “About” page, but I’ve had plenty enough fun for two days just getting to this point. This theme does have a few issues, but I think they can be worked out. I tried for hours trying to use the code from the previous theme so I could retain the semitransparent photo effects, but to no avail. Bummer. I really liked them
In short (hah!) Alastor is a more suitable persona to take over this Blog, as “the Spirit of Solitude” (as in Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem) and I share some similarities, as I feel I do with the great Poet who wrote it. I’ll provide more detail in the “About” page when I get around to it, which should be soon.
I’m still getting used to messing with the widgets, and some plug-ins aren’t working just right. I hate having spent the better part of two days with an unfinished product to show for it! But after the Blog is more or less settled, I’ll be moving on to redesign (or at least rectify) unbound.org, which is in need of some serious attention. At the very least get the damn left-justified pages centered LOL!
Anyway, I do hope that this new design is more pleasing to your eye; I love it! It reminds me of the lakeside scene in the opening pages of Lily’s story, UNBOUND, which are provided on the website named after it, reachable from the sidebar. Sometimes I wish that I could stay there forever; I know that Lily wishes she would have, floating in her little boat on the water…
I MAY put up the second chapter in the “Excerpt” pages on unbound.org if it seems a good idea, when I can resume thinking about other things again. It contains a lovely sunset scene set later that day, although by that time Lily and Will are oceanside at Pismo Beach Pier to watch it. But why quibble?
As things settle down here I’ll get around to filling up my Blogroll, adding a FlickrRSS plug-in, and look into a way to add a little (un-popular LOL) music to this space. If you have any feedback or comments, please do leave them as I’m very interested in what you think
Well, this is a weird one: I just discovered that Comments are not being enabled! Thanks to Ray R. who left a comment that I accidentally “unapproved” and when I went to add it back in found that I couldn’t add it, or even one of my own! When I clicked the “Comment” icon aside the Post NOTHING HAPPENED!!! I tried it over and over… funny, on my previous PC it worked fine. But now there’s no reaction at all.
So, first of all, thank you Ray, for your comment and also for enabling me to see the error. Secondly, I guess I’ll be forced to find another Blog template to use as this one has outworn its usefulness (not to mention functionality). Since I haven’t really told all that many people about it I figured that nobody was interested enough to leave comments (aside from Wanda and a few spammers, that is). Perhaps there’s hope for Fingal after all! I do wish I’d have known about this sooner though.
Anyway, since he went to all the trouble of typing (and somehow managing to leave) his comment for moderation, I’ll just reproduce it here:
“well, well ,well here you are still alive and kicking
Like me you do not “do” a lot at the TDF these days so I am glad to see your still at it.
Best wishes Ray.”
Short and sweet, thank you Ray!
In reply: no, I haven’t done TDF or any Forums lately, as between losing the old PC and waiting for then setting up this one, a plethora of house problems that needed fixing, working on getting the book published, and a general malaise, I just haven’t felt up to posting. It all seems rather pointless at times. Especially when it seems that there is no “interaction” from all appearances, anyway, either here or on the Forums. I figure that if no-one else cares, why should I bother? There’s always something else that needs to be done anyway. I do miss posting in the anime thread there though, as it is something that really interests me and that I loved sharing (and apparently lots of members enjoyed reading with nearly 7000 views in just a few months). But I do thank you for your post!
Well, I guess today’s assignment is to find another template. Shoot, I really liked this layout too… especially the way the photos faded in and out with mouse rollovers. *sigh*
In the meantime, if anyone does want to contact me, try prometheus (at) unbound (dot) org. (Fucking spammers!)
Thanks for your kind attention… and stay tuned, if you will!
Ah, Computer; OK Computer! This feels like home again! I finally have gotten my new PC set up and worked almost all of the bugs out of it, but it’s an ongoing process to be sure. I highly recommend Digital Storm Online (http://digitalstormonline.com/) for those wanting to design their own build; their configurator, pricing and customer service combined make them a best buy. Customer Service is unparalelled! Very happy with them and the PC I got from them, even though it’s an expense I could have done without. Moved up to a widescreen monitor, and after my eyes have finished settling to the sides of my head I’m sure that I’ll be enjoying it quite a lot.
On the book front, I’ve sent a query to Llewellyn Publishing, in whom I’ve found a most suitable company to send the novel to for consideration. They’ll be a perfect fit from what I’ve read about them. I’ve also found five others to whom I’ll be sending out queries; all of them accept simultaneous submissions without needing an agent for representation as most publishers require. That’s the very small ballpark I’m in at the moment. I may still try for that agent if I can figure out how to cram 733 pages of story into a two-page synopsis. Mission Impossible, sheesh…
I’ve been busy with the researching of publishers and such so that my time has been limited to just that and setting up the PC, so I haven’t been watching too much anime lately. Still, it’s my most favored of “new” (to me) types of media to enjoy; very much like independent film, only animated. What wonderful stories! I’m totally (yes, TOTALLY) in love with the Key series presented by Kyoto Animation: Air, Kanon, and now Clannad, which is currently airing in Japan. Kanon has joined Elfen Lied and Air as my untouchable faves; it is such a moving and magical series! Highly recommended. DVD #1 was recently released here in the States, and the second one with the collector’s box will be out in February; I’m really looking forward to getting it, if ADV Films actually releases it. They’ve removed a lot of entries from their store recently, so I wait with bated breath… the awful details are related here at Anime News Network: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-30/adv-films-removes-titles-from-website-update .
Complicating matters these past months were an electrical circuit blow-out that I finally got around to having repaired; in the meantime I was without overhead lights in two rooms PLUS my stereo system had no juice, so no music either. And I hate listening to music on my computer, so had no musical loveliness to enjoy either. Major bummer! Then my heater started going out and I had to spend a week with no heat, another not-so-fun time-period. (WHY do these things happen in winter fer chrissakes???) Managed to get that repaired as well to no small amount of cash. So, things are slowly getting back to the nearest semblance of normalcy I can manage.
And I finally made a Facebook page; my brother had mentioned it before but I was hesitant to get involved with yet ANOTHER “place where you must read and write a lot”. But after getting an invitation for an anime group from one of the admins (I think) at Nihonomaru.com I relented at last. (By the way, this is a great place to investigate anime! Here’s a link to the forum, where you MAY need to register, but it’s worth it: http://forum.nihonomaru.com/ . And since I’m recommending anime sites I might also suggest AnimeSuki which contains a wealth of information: http://forums.animesuki.com/ .
So there.
Now that I’m back on my feet (for the most part) I’ll try and be a Better Blogger. As for the poor website… well, I’m not too happy with it, but at the moment it’s the best I can do what with the (free) materials I have to work with. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it together and design my own pages so that I can make a site I can be proud of. This one will do for now though, sad as it is. It’s mainly there to promote Lily and her novel, and at least HER pages are sweet enough
But that’s how she is…
Hope the New Year is good to you all… take care!
on the water
Welcome to Alastor's Reflection, the re-imagining of Fingal's Cave; a much more suitable environment than that poor soul's indwelling. Fingal resumes his journey in the pages of UNBOUND, while another solitary Spirit remains in this Place to muse with his Muse on the pursuit of "Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory," and the beauties therein...
