Notices by Blake C. Stacey (bstacey@icosahedron.website), page 7

@InspectorCaracal @grainloom @noelle ⭐

@InspectorCaracal @grainloom @noelle "Downtown Cribs: Steampunk penthouse a surprise twist" https://www.indystar.com/story/life/2017/06/25/downtown-cribs-steampunk-penthouse-surprise-twist/397842001/

"15 Renwick isn't just any building: it's a steampunk-themed luxury development." https://www.businessinsider.com/steampunk-condo-development-proves-that-new-york-is-over-2014-12

(I remembered the second and found the first while trying to look it up again.)

@brightneedle I remember being gobsmacked back in 2015 when a scientist actually described the protesters as "a horde of native Hawaiians".

https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/post/how-debate-over-tmt-prompted-problematic-email#stream/0

one more citation to this paper and I think I'll get an h-index increment on Google Scholar

https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/19/6/273

🤔

... Tanaka himself is like Takagi would be two decades later in /Die Hard/: on paper, a construct of the West's impression of Japan at the time, but in performance, genial and living.

"One thing my honorable mother taught me" --- yep, construct of the West --- "was never to get into a car with a strange girl. But you" --- stepping out to josh Bond directly --- "will get into anything with any girl."

... Tanaka is genial, willing and able to needle Bond but from a place of genuine respect. Despite the "in Japan, men come first" business (to which Bond replies "I might just retire here"), Tanaka runs a secret service where the women aren't just receptionists.

The Doylist explanation is that Roald Dahl (yes, that one) was told that a Bond movie had to have three "Bond girls", one of whom is evil and succumbs to his charms. He stuck to the formula he was given. And one of them doesn't even get a name in dialogue, which is, yeah. But the overall result is interesting.

So the news is that the code number "007" will be reassigned to a character played by Lashana Lynch:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/15/lashana-lynch-new-007-james-bond-daniel-craig

This reminds me of when I rewatched /You Only Live Twice/ (1967). There's plenty about the Bond franchise that is awful, as more qualified writers than I have said, which makes the good bits in YOLT stand out in surprising ways. The movie almost dawdles at points, stopping for a sporting event, a wedding, a funeral. The affective immediacy of cinema puts the viewer "there" in a way that a fishbowl tour wouldn't. "Hey," the movie says, "those people we were at war with not that long ago? They're people. It's all the same, just different."

Yes, it's the one where Sean Connery is "disguised as Japanese", which is awful and cringey and about as dignified as his wardrobe in /Zardoz/. But it also has---

"Do you have any commandos?"

"We have much better, Bond-san. Ninjas."

My friend Greg was in China for work and did some sightseeing in the process.

https://skullsinthestars.com/2019/07/14/dr-skyskull-in-china-part-4-the-shandong-museum/

"Gallery 2 is the Exhibition of Han Dynasty Pictorial Art. You are welcomed to the gallery by a pair of stone lions which look like they just realized that they left their office keys on the counter at home."

good night

:blobpats: