Thursday, March 31, 2011

Now THAT'S Racist!

It has been four whole years since the last Asian Arert. Well, here's a new one:  This clip is from the Tokyo shock flick 'Vampire  Girl -vs- Frankenstein Girl' and features a clique of Japanese school-girls that are taking the 'wanna-be' fad way too far.
Yes, it's offensive, but I also I think it's an inspired social commentary on the absurdity of the misguided emulation of (wrongly perceived) black culture.

Discuss.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Rewired: Part Three - The Minuses of Hulu Plus

Item: Hulu Plus
Price: $7.99 per month
Days to pay for itself (compared to cost of cable): 1.6 per month

It's been well over a month since we cut cable, and we're surprisingly happy with our new set-up... With one exception: Hulu Plus.  First off, here's what it is: Hulu Plus is a streaming service available through the PS3, Roku, mobile Apple devices, and a few select TVs/Blu-ray players. Hulu Plus has over 400 shows and 800 movies available for streaming to your TV/game console/mobile device.
They have some good shows (Nova, X-Files, Firefly, Law & Order SVU, Spaced, Little Britain, Daily Show, etc.). They have a plethora of crap shows (Airwolf, Time Tunnel, Major Dad, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, etc.). They have a bunch of shows I never watch, but that people seem to like (Family Guy, Glee, Jersey Shore,30 Rock, etc.).
It sounds like a pretty good deal for 8 bucks a month until you realize that the standard version of Hulu has four times the number of shows FOR FREE. I can watch Simpsons, Venture Brothers, Fringe, Walking Dead, Sons of Anarchy, etc for free on Hulu, but NOT on Hulu Plus. I realize that it's a licensing issue, but I really don't want to shell out $8 per month just to watch Nova with commercials (sometimes thrown in mid-sentence).
The selection isn't even the worst bit. I don't know if Hulu Plus won an online auction for a load of Soviet-era Bulgarian technology, but that seems to be what their running their service on. Damn near every show you watch will skip ahead, freeze, or (if you're lucky) completely lock-up so that you have to manually re-boot the PS3. It's ridiculous. I have never had that problem with Netflix's streaming service, but It happens constantly with Hulu Plus.
The one thing I can say that I really like about Hulu Plus is that they've started to make available a load of Criterion Collection films, and seem to be adding in more all of the time. That's good. When I was trying to watch Nobuhiko Obayashi's 'House' The film kept locking-up and it took me over 2 hours to watch an 88 minute film. That's not good.
Don't believe the hype - There's no "race" between Netflix and Hulu Plus, that'd be like a race between a Ferrari and a filing cabinet. Hulu Plus could be a great service if they work out the bugs in their system and focus on securing more licenses for current shows. That looks like it is a long way off, so until they work out their myriad flaws, I can't (in good conscience) recommend Hulu Plus to anyone. Then again, it's still better than Comcast.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Very Young Dog
-or-
Puppy, Puppy, Puppy, Puppy!

We just rescued a (12 week old) puppy last Friday (March 11th).  I didn't see this one coming.  I was out at Mutiny on Wednesday and was alerted by the bartender to a golden pup that was about to hit the shelter.  Less than 48 hour later, we had another dog.
This one is Jenny's, so I'm leaving the naming up to her, but it looks like she's going to be called Leela (I wanted to name her 'Amaterasu-Ō-Mi-Kami', so it's probably for the best that Jenny took over that duty).
And, yes, I know that the pic is out of focus, but it is nearly impossible to get a picture of the puppy that isn't a golden blur.  Deal with it.

Monday, March 07, 2011

Hasta la Vista, Crazy.

After five months of crashing out on our futon, Cheyenne (pictured) went back to live with her real family today. I'll be at a loss for rambling stories of adventure for awhile.