Midaregami

Does anybody else know about this book, or is it only news to me? The premise is intriguing: a fairy tale book with clues to actual treasure in it. The book was published in November of last year, and so far none of the 12 items have been found. Makes me want to go on a road trip…

I’ve resisted posting this group for some time. I don’t know why. The band, Self, makes brilliant, sneaky pop music that masquerades as top 40 boy band sorority chick rock. I am not joking.

The creative center, one Matt Mahaffey, has the wit of a drawma_boy/”>Cody or a Jake, the production chops of a BT or a Flood, and the self-serving creative purity of a Fluffy. I am still not joking.

These tunes are from the album “Breakfast with Girls,” which is probably the easiest Self record to find. “Meg Ryan” is a jumpy declaration of what-ifs and if-onlys, “What are you thinking?” might be regretful paean disguised as a pop-rock epic, and “Better than Aliens” is just a weird, thoughtful tune. Seriously, download this. More hooks than a tacklebox, more beats than the NYPD, and you don’t even have to lose your indie cred to dig it.

• Meg Ryan

• What are you thinking?

• Better than Aliens

The traveling orders were posted
Two wastelands, both blasted—I’m toasted!
Far east was the one
The other loves guns
Naught unchanged ‘cept where my site’s hosted

Apparently I’m in Montana
But understand why—I just canna’
A girl’s involved
that’s one problem solved
The boredom, though, that I’m no fan o’

Up ahead there looms graduate school
In Boulder, it’s lousy with fools
That is, if you’re Right
or a Red troglodyte
but me, I’m a Blue-minded tool

To bungo class there I shall plod
And try not to do work that’s slipshod
avoiding the theme
of a pissed academe
like Professor Rasplica Rodd

I have finished Green Mars, but its sequel hasn’t turned up in the local used bookstore yet, so I have moved on. In lieu of it, I picked up another Kim Stanley Robinson book, “Icehenge.”

The premise: the discovery of an array of huge frozen megaliths on the north pole of Pluto, with the central pillar bearing an inscription in Sanskrit. This sounds suspiciously Clarkian¹, but it is not.

It is time to start writing again. The excuse I have been using (“too tired, nothing happening”) just doesn’t cut it anymore. There’s no reason a genius of my caliber can’t making exhaustion and boredom interesting—look at Douglas Copeland. (Zing! If I were a Simpsons character I’d be Mr. Buuurns!)

But I’m going to start of easy and slow, with Otogi Zoshi, a new anime set in the Heian period of Japan. Let’s discuss the reasons why it is good.

• One-eyed swordsman with memorized, pompous pre-battle speech—check.
• Cross-dressing girl archer secretly fighting in place of dying brother—check.
• Dancing Imperial Entertainer bishounen who is actually an angst-ridden martial artist—check.
• Vicious heian insults such as “The plum blossoms in the capital have little fragrance. I am thinking of searching them out elsewhere.”—check. (and Buuuurn!)
• Bitchin’ gagaku soundtrack—check.
• Creepy Noh mask-wearing villain—check.

And that’s only the first volume. I hear tell that the second half of the series takes place in modern Japan, with the reincarnations of the characters from the first half. As happens so frequently, my hyperbole fails me.