Question for Y'all

The Inauguration was nice. Politics totally aside, it was a nice ceremony. The music was lovely. The President's speech was nice and to the point. He had great skills of oratory and a lovely speaking voice. The crowds behaved themselves for the most part. My friends in DC who were on the Mall and in their homes survived having that many more people in their city. I watched it with Peter while he wrote about it on his web log. I went to Caroline's school to help out in the library and the kids were talking about what they saw. They wanted books about Obama of which the librarian had a few both pictures and easy- reader which were quickly checked out as were the books on Martin Luther King Jr.

So who is going to NYCC? I might be there Friday. I will be there Saturday evening and Sunday. Saturday is dependent on a couple of factors.

I made turkey tetrazzini last night. It worked out pretty well. Peter cooked a turkey last week and we finished it out with that. My mom's receipt was used and enjoyed by all.

I have a bunch of stuff in my head. I am debating what I want to talk about so I leave y'all with a question. What do YOU read this web log for? What do I write that YOU like? Is there something you would like to see more of?

I look forward to your responses.

I am grateful for receipts that work on the first try.

LJ Idol Week 17 A (Space) Pirate's life for me

Before Pirates were cool again, before Captain Jack first swaggered across the deck of the Pearl, I gave my heart and my loyalty to a Space pirate named Captain Harlock.


(For the VI: Picture of Captain Harlock with wine glass)

I am an Anime fan from way back so far back it was when TBS use to show anime in the afternoon right after it became a cable channel. They showed the live action too like Space Giants but I remember enjoyed Battle of the Planets and G-force among others. One afternoon I sat down and watched the first episode of "Space Battleship Yamato" and really enjoyed it even with the cheese factor.

Later they started showing this thing called "Captain Harlock and the Queen of 100 years" which I figured out pretty fast was two shows being mix-mastered together. I was lucky enough to find a group of people who were also big Matsumoto fans (creator of Captain Harlock and writer for Yamato) at one of the local conventions and my education of all things Harlock began.

Harlock was one of those sexy loners with sexy scars and a dark brooding past that just made me squirm. He was all the tropes of the noble man who is on the wrong side of the law just because the law ain't right. (I put Captain Nemo in that category but that is a whole other essay).

He had a cool space ship that looked like a WW II battle cruiser redone as a pirate ship and the back of the ship looked like the back end of the Black Pearl. The skull and crossbones was worked into just about everything. His crew was loyal although a little loopy. There was a lot of drinking going on that ship. I learned the Kanji for saki pretty quickly. The Aliens were cool and there were good aliens and bad aliens and a few that you just weren't sure of their motives or moral character. I still have to take it on faith that Tochiro could build/rebuild an entire space ship on his own but with much cooler tech because he was just that brilliant.

I watched everything I could, even the cameos he had in various Matsumoto series and films both translated and just in Japanese. "My Youth in Arcadia" just rocked my world. I even wrote really bad fanfic about Captain Harlock and his crew that have not seen the light of day since I wrote them.

Since then I have collected various things Harlock related. Recently I got a replica of the gravity saber that was released in Japan. I have everything that is available on DVD here in the states. One of the first set of actions figures Peter got for me were Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas since he knew how much I loved the characters.

I so love that sexy pirate.

I leave you with the opening to Endless Road SSX which I would love a copy of to add to my collection. Unfortunately, it had never been released on DVD in the US so my search continues.

Watch on YouTube