Rocket Bomber - general fandom

Over at Anime Vice, Gia asked the question — “Do you think that lolicon and shotacon (e.g. hand-drawn materials featuring underage— sometimes VERY underage —characters in sexual situations) should be banned?”

And here’s my response:

So. I can point everyone to my ‘defense of porn’ post, again
http://www.rocketbomber.com/2009/01/10/5by8-29-the-blind-men-and-the-elephant-in-the-room

Unfortunately, I get a lot of mileage out of that link.

Specifically loli and shota porn though? I can’t speak to that. My gut says No.

Make that Hell No, no comics should be banned, ever, ever, unless a real life child was harmed by the artist in the process of creating the work in which case the censorship and/or destruction of that work should be a consequence of conviction for those crimes, along with things like prison and/or some other life-time supervision of the Creep Who Hurt Children.

Art does not hurt children. Drawings of people are not people. Creeps who hurt children will be creeps not matter what we publish, or don’t publish, and the major consideration is not their access to Art but their access to Children.

My head, in opposition to my gut, tells me the issue is more complex than that. And reactions by civilians and the Justified Outrage of the General Public whenever they come across material like this just makes the hobby look bad.

I just want to read books. All kinds of books. Anything that gets in the way of that is bad, in my opinion. We can question the motives of people who produce works that seemingly encourage Bad People to do Bad Things to children (“Think of the children!”) but I firmly believe that in a free society that encourages free speech, free thought, and free expression we cannot question their works as works. If you can prove a crime, with a real victim, then we can revisit the value of the work.

But Books don’t kill people. People who burn Books kill people. You want to ban something “for the common good”?

I find that to be as abhorrent as the worst, least defensible porn.

Per YouTube, this video only has 116 views. —which is criminal

Can you help me to fix this? It’s simple: I just need you to watch — and maybe link.

OK, so there are at least two other versions of this performance just on YouTube itself (with 20k+ views apiece) but the video embedded above is from the official Tripod channel, so I think they deserve a little love. If you’re really interested, and until Tripod gets their shit together, this link will be quite useful; and this is why you’re interested:

Oh, and this one too:

and it’s 10 years old but I still love this one:

As a favor to me: Can we show a little love for Tripod?

More here.

With little fanfare the über-cööl Project Rooftop finally got around to posting the winners to the Wolverine: Look Sharp design contest — first announced close to four months ago. Sheesh. If the results weren’t so freakin’ cool (ref. Batman 2.0) I would have given up ages ago.

As it is, only my random-kinda-weekly-but-really-random spot check pulled this one up; I don’t think I’ve seen it announced on any major site. Granted, they posted it a month ago and I still missed it myself — and I’m a big fan (of PR, not necessarily of Wolverine) but I was looking for something grander than just a blog post on Newsarama announcing this:

The Winners are up for Project Rooftop’s Wolverine: Look Sharp Contest! Woot, woot! Notable not just for the innovative design ideas, but also the extended commentary of the judges, one should not be surprised that it takes three months to go through more than 160 entries, and while we might wish they could post more regularly even with half-assed (for them) filler content (as their one-half-of-one-ass kicks the ass of most other sites, even with one ass tied behind their back — OK, I’ll stop now) one still appreciates the effort and dedication-to-concept exhibited by Project Rooftop, and We’ll Take What We Can Get™.

And really, even if you hate Wolverine it might be worth a look (and even if you really hate Wolverine you still need to go over there for some of the previous contests.)

Why devote a whole post just to opening a box?

It’s a tech blog tradition [so go bug them about it] and with a list price of $500, this sucker is a bit more expensive that 90% of all netbooks and smartphones — and there is quite a lot here.

And — If you were considering Rosetta Stone for your have-to-watch-anime-in-the-raw-as-soon-as-it’s-available-need (or whatever you need a foreign language for; go away kid, you’re bothering me) but balked at the price tag (who wouldn’t?) well, maybe it’d help if someone showed you exactly what you get for a half-grand.

As denoted by the image above: this is three levels of Rosetta Stone Japanese (not the level-one-only set they have for $250 bucks — this is the big ante.)

What you’ll find inside:

translation: buncha discs, cheap headset.

Back Cover, more ad copy —

Note: I didn’t pay $500 bucks (and these were actually $550 dollars like, last month) but I didn’t manage to save more than $50 off list price even with my ‘connections’ — Rosetta Stone is expensive. I could’ve saved up to $75 buying online, but in this case I chose to forgo the additional discount as we had a copy in the store and I could take it home Saturday night; no need to wait on UPS to ship it to me.

After cutting through the strategically placed clear packing tape, and navigating not one but two slip cases, we get to the inner sanctum of the software box.

And from there we discover Rosetta-chan likes tea, traditional Yukata, and extraneous packaging.

Stealthily fishing into Rosetta’s yukata, we can actually put our hands on the goods; in this case, the actual program, a smidge of documentation, and a whole lot of audio CDs:

First up is the actual, much vaunted, RS software itself: it looks like there is a base install CD, along with data CDs for each of the three levels (next week I’ll cover the installation process and first impressions; right now we’re still just opening up the box)

For each level of the program, there are 4 audio CDs:

[these are actually different images, one for each level of the program]

[each of these images is actually three times this size; open ‘em in a new tab to see some detail]

If one believes the ad copy on the back of the box, the audio CDs are meant to reinforce the Rosetta Stone computer lessons. We’ll be looking into that.

All the software and audio media comes with a user’s guide (which I haven’t read and probably won’t read) a quick start guide (which I haven’t read and might not read depending on how easy it is to install the software) and a sticker — a sticker one can place on one’s laptop to clarify to the general public that one isn’t crazy, one is merely trying to learn correct pronunciation of a foreign language using the clunky, provided USB headset

If one spends less than $500, I’m guessing you don’t get a $15 headset mic and you’re on your own for ye ol’ speech recognition functionality in Rosetta Stone [edit 12-Aug-09: see the comments, a Rosetta Stone employee assures us the headset comes in all RS packages, regardless of level] (I have a USB mic; I’ll verify if one needs the proprietary headset to use this feature) but as I’ve already bought the set — here it is:

So. 12 audio CDs, 4 data CDs, the headset, and assorted docs.

Rosetta Stone Japanese; levels 1, 2 , & 3 — trackball, laptop, manga, and beer not included —

And so the experiment begins; I’ll keep you posted.

Costco + Japan = Oh My Gods why aren’t I living in Japan?

My poor fevered brains conjure up images of buying 12-packs of figurines, whole pallets of anime on DVD (“Hi. Can I borrow that forklift?”) and not just ramen by the case (we buy that here) but actual edible ramen, authentic even, by the case.

I had no idea there was even a single Costco in Japan. This renders my world view null, void, and moot. I need… I need a few minutes. I may need months.

Does Costco Japan sell Eroge? Can I buy a Peach Princess multi-pak or something? The mind boggles…

Dana Blankenhorn on Steve Jobs: “For daring to steal fire from the Gods, it is said, Prometheus was chained to a rock and sentenced to having his liver pecked out by birds.”

Geeks are prime, and easy, targets. Be careful, my brothers & sisters: they are gunning for our tech.

Cary Tennis @ Salon: “We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams.”

##

Wait. What the hell is the Splash Page, why is it affiliated with MTV (you lost all cred with the fan base when you cancelled Daria, nerfwads) and given that there are many, many blogs who were reporting on the rumours a full month in advance, and at least two sites had the full story the day before, what the hell makes this an ‘exclusive’?

Oh, the ‘exclusive’ is that Fraggle Rock will be the first Henson property to see ink. (Tokyopop’s Labyrinth and Dark Crystal, Marvel’s ’80s efforts, and the recent — and excellent — Boom Studio’s Muppets aside.)

This is so far from an ‘exclusive’ I can only imagine that the only site that could get away with it is one that caters to the most casual of comic fans who are really only interested in the movies — who have never bought an actual book and who waste their days watching the worst in reality programming on basic cable…

Oh. hi, MTV, didn’t know you were listening.

The ‘journalism’ involved is even lower than my lax standards, which is especially galling given that fact that someone is paid to update their site, and I’m only giving this the merit of a link because I love Fraggle Rock, I love Henson (I consider Jim to be my third parent, and a small part of my soul died on 16 May, 1990) and just about anything that advances the Fraggle/Muppet cause has to be good news.

Don’t bother to click the MTV link, go read about it here. — and, um, if I was able to find a second, nearly identical story posted to a different website on the same day (and if timestamps are to be believed, 40 minutes before your article) what, exactly, makes your report exclusive, MTV? Hm?

aside: ooooo… Farscape Comics… [*homeresque gargle*]

and not so much an aside, but the music has been running though my head for the past three days reading all these fraggle articles

Found:

Actually, I’d mentioned one of these before, but now we have covers and descriptions:

The Rough Guide to Manga

by Jason S. Yadao, Rough Guides, isbn 9781858285610, coming September 21, 2009.

From the publisher,

“The Rough Guide to Manga” is the ultimate handbook offering a comprehensive overview of one of the most fashionable genre’s in today’s popular culture. The guide features the manga story: from manga’s twelfth-century roots to the rise of English-language manga with profiles of influential creators like Leiji Matsumoto and CLAMP as well as publishers to look out for. You’ll find an overview of manga’s unique styles, techniques and genres decoded as well as a canon of fifty must-read manga, including the iconic “Astro Boy”, global hits “Fruits Basket” and “Battle Royale”, plus less well-known works like “Please Save My Earth”. “The Rough Guide to Manga” demystifies unfamiliar terms and genres for newcomers whilst offering manga fans plenty of new recommendations including listings for manga magazines and websites along with a glossary of terms. Crammed with illustrations, and including a section on the anime connection, this is must-have Manga for beginners and enthusiasts alike.

…can’t wait till September? This just came out:
[like, today even]

The Rough Guide to Anime

by Simon Richmond , Rough Guides, isbn 9781858282053

ibid.:

The Rough Guide to Anime provides a comprehensive overview of the diverse and amazing world of animation from Japan. Combining a critical approach with all the essential background information – from history and short biographies of the key people in the industry to the different genres, themes and cultural references of anime – this is the ultimate guide to Japanese animation. The book introduces the creative talents behind the major anime movies, TV series and OVA (original video animation) – from the Oscar-winning Spirited Away to classic works like Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and the iconic shows Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Speed Racer and Robotech. Written by anime expert Simon Richmond, features include the Top 50 must-sees, with details on the most influential directors and creative artists. There’‘s an exploration of the art form’‘s history, plus information on the anime conventions and manga-related attractions in Japan. Newcomers will love the glossary of all the anime slang and jargon, while devoted fans will relish the fresh exploration of themes, genres and obsessions in the colourful anime universe.

The Rough Guide to Anime explores the best of the prolific genre of anime in today’s popular culture.

Go forth and educate thyself.

More: www.rocketbomber.com/category/found/

I just gave $100 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

It’s what I can do. I’ve been saving for a new laptop; I had the cash. The laptop can wait another month.

The CBLDF has a store. You can buy über-cool stuff, and it goes to support a good cause. Me, I gave them the money straight up — no strings, no incentives — but that’s how I roll. I won’t fault you for buying a signed copy of Bone or The Joker or Mouse Guard or Planetary or Sandman or the Walking Dead. Because the creators who signed & donated those works (Jeff Smith, Brain Azzarello & Lee Bermejo, David Petersen, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, and all three creators of the Walking Dead: Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn) along with notables like Terry Moore, Brian Bendis, Brian K. Vaughn, J.G. Jones, Frank Miller, and Brian Azzarello — and many others — support the CBLDF and see the obvious merit in giving fans the swag they want while also raising money for the cause.

When the time comes, when a zealous and/or misguided local prosecutor comes gunning for your stash, or leans on your local retailer-of-choice looking for a quick “crusader of family values” headline right before an election, it might be too late — I’m sure they’ll be happy to take your money then, but there is work to do now.

Please Give.

As to the specifics of the Handley Case: My Thoughts on Porn Comics are a matter of public record, and have been for four months. None of the specifics (or I should say ‘generalities’ as no specifics have actually been publicized) of the case as revealed to date have changed my opinion since that post.

There’s also this, from my post of 16 Dec 2008, Responses to Tom & Dave

Why Is It That People Still Don’t Seem To Get The CBLDF?

This is related, I fear, to the public hatred of the ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union is dedicated to one-and-a-half things: The Defense of Your Rights, that is to say (there’s the one and here’s the half) the individual rights guaranteed to you by the constitution.

Occasionally, they have adopted an unpopular position because the need to defend some idiot for being an idiot is also necessary to protect your rights. For this they are branded Evil, a boil upon the ass of the earth, a pestilence not to be endured.

These same idiots that condemn the ACLU are in fact those best served by its efforts. The irony of this is not lost on the brave activists who ceaselessly work for your individual rights; ACLU employees are saints. If you’re a dittohead I beg of you to turn off the radio for three weeks and seriously look at your values. I mean, think. It’s tough, I know, and so much easier to condemn others and echo the thoughts of those who speak loudly about stuff they either don’t understand or are purposely misleading you about. But the ACLU is a right-wing, libertarian, extremist organization — about as far from liberal as one can get: their focus is on individual rights over that of the government. If you hate the government, what’s the hassle? I can’t imagine why other “right”-thinking persons and organizations don’t support the ACLU. (I can only suppose it’s due to alien mind control)

“The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1986 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community.”

That is to say: Your. Constitutionally Guaranteed. Rights. Yours, you own them, folks are trying to take them away but the CBLDF is jumping on grenades right and left to keep you reading comics without state interference you ungrateful chav.

To answer Tom’s question, people don’t know what their rights are to begin with, and are willing to give them away for tuppence because they’re idjits. That, and the CBLDF needs to add a “what we do” tab to their homepage.

I don’t know if I missed it the first time, but you guys could still make it more obvious on your home page.