Let’s Complete Studio Ghibli X

Good Morning Everyone!

Coming to you live from the Adriatic Seaand it’s a soft, wet love that you have for me. When describing the male gender, I once said this to a “good” friend: (1) A through Z, all men are dogs; (2) we have two brains, but only think with one of them during a given circumstance; (3) thus, we are stupid (especially when the stars are aligned and the pheromones are kicking); (4) therefore, we are easily subdues by love, lust, infatuation, intrigue and the like; (5) but, we have little to offer (the main thing being one of #2); (6) that is why we are hunters; (7) thus, we must provide.

I can see the castle
I can see the throne
I can see the beloved and she’s not alone
But it’s cool like that
Cuz I’ll be diggin’ her just the same
I can see the curtain wrestled from the wall
I can see her hands tied
I can see it all
He pulls a gat
This is how they play the game
And I’m ’round the the back
Cuz curiosity it knows no shame

Pheromone, rush over me like an ocean
Pheromone, controllin’ my every motion
Pheromone, I’m helpless as a pet
Pheromone, when your body’s wet

Disc 10: Porco Rosso, Crimson Pig, Kurenai no Buta, 紅の豚
Director and Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
Release Date: July 18, 1992

Ah…the seclusion of an island all to yourself. Crystal clear water and a calming breeze; a lost little hole for you to sleep and ponder on the good things. And the fact that you have been cursed to live as a pig for the rest of your life. Here, we have Marco Pagot, a former ace fighter pilot from World War I, now a freelance bounty hunter chasing air pirates. Of said air pirates, the movie opens with a group of sea pirates attempting to kidnap a group of young girls and burgle a cruise liner, who are more excited about the kidnapping as opposed to scared…it was a playful kidnapping. Marco rescues the girls, leaving behind some of the stolen loot to the pirates so that they can repair their now damaged airship. Afterwards, Marco flies to Hotel Adriano, where we find a group of pirates who are negotiating a contract to kill Marco with a cocky American pilot, Curtis and where Marco meets his closest friend, the owner of the hotel, Gina.

Life is precious baby, love is so rare
I can take the breakup if u say that u care
He had 2 run away, his pride was 2 strong
It started raining, baby, the birds were gone
(I love u baby, I love u so much)
Maybe (Maybe we can stay in touch)
Meet me in another world (Meet me in another world, space and joy)
vous etes tres belle (vous etes tres belle, mama)
Girls and boys (girls and boys)

A short time after, and after a short flight fight, Curtis believes that he has killed Marco. With his plane badly wrecked, Marco goes toMilanto repair his plane. Here, we find Piccolo and his granddaughter, Fio, who is a mechanical genius in disguise…in disguise of a 17 year old girl. Hesitant at first, Marco refuses to have his plane repaired by Fio. He eventually changes his mind. The plane is repaired by Fio and an all female workforce.

If I had a harem like all the papers say
If I had a harem like all the papers say
I’d have me a different girl 4 each and every day

If I had a harem here’s what I’d do
If I had a harem here’s what I’d do
I’d get me 7, 8, or 9 just 2 take care of U
This is true
Yeah

With the plane repaired. Macro leaves to go after Curtis. To his surprise, Fio, who fashioned a compartment for herself in the plane, decides to leave with him. Again, hesitant at first, Marco succumbs to Fio’s and her grandfather’s will. Together they fly escaping the Italian police. Marco flies over the Hotel Adriano, where Curtis is trying to soothsay Gina into joining him toAmerica. At the sight of Marco, Gina reminisces of her childhood days, when her and a then human Marco would fly together. Gina proclaims her love for Marco. Upon their return to Marco’s private island, they are found ambushed by the band of pirates. Curtis then appears and challenges Marco to a duel. If Marco wins, Curtis will pay for Marco’s plane-repair bills. If Curtis wins, he wins Fio’s hand in marriage. Having made friends with the pirates and regretting the decision for not padding the bill, Fio takes a swim.

Hot thing!
Hot thing, barely 21
Hot thing, looking 4 big fun
Hot thing, what’s your fantasy?
Do U wanna play with me?

Hot thing, baby U dance so good
Hot thing, baby I knew U would
Hot thing, tell me what U see
Hot thing, When U smile, when U smile, when U smile
Are your smiles, are your smiles 4 me?

That night, Fio wakes from her sleep to find Macro cleaning bullets. At first site, she sees Marco as human. Awakened, Fio asks Marco to tell her a story. He tells her about the last summer of the war when he was still human. Marco’s best friend Bellini married Gina. While flying, Bellini and Marco are attacked by Austrian pilots. Unable to control his plane, Marco gives up and the plane pilots itself into a cloud. Above the cloud there is a convoy of planes. The other planes attacked, icluding Bellini’s, emerge from the cloud and float up to the convoy. Marco proclaims to Belilini that he cannot leave Gina and that Marco should go instead. Bellini, deaf, did not return. Macro returns feeling guilty. This incident caused his transformation from human to pig.

If a man is considered guilty
4 what goes on in his mind
Then give me the electric chair
4 all my future crimes-OH!

Let’s take a drive, love
So we can make up our minds, love
2 commit the crimes of passion
That sets us free
Me lovin’ U, U lovin’ me (me lovin’ u, u lovin’ me)

The electric chair

The next day, Marco and Curtis meet for the dogfight. The two fight until their planes can no longer take it. An air duel soon becomes a boxing match in the water. In the climax of the fight, Gina arrives. Upon her arrival, Marco wins the duel. Curtis pays Fio. Marco sends Fio with Gina. In the end, it is implied that Macro returns to human form.

Can U take me home
Where we can be alone?
Can U make me happy
Till my pain is gone?
Can U get me excited?
Excited enough 2 thank the God above 4 the human body

General comments: another good one. A more comical affair: definitely in regards to wordplay and the usage of “pig.” The most comical Studio Ghibli flick yet, thus thoroughly enjoyable.

…Until next time! Keep watching!

New Dimensions?

Good Morning Everyone!

Coming to you live from an elegant universe where it would take 26 dimensions for our theories to work. Just imagine what would happen if one of those strings were misplaced. Would the balance of the universe be run off kilter? Would hot snow fall up? A definite answer would be that our favorite sweater would no longer be fashionable as the string, now misplaced, will eventually create a holel: a hole so infinitesimally small yet so overwhelming in our mind that we would store the sweater into the deepest realms of our closets; stuffed into the blackest corner, never to be seen by our eyes again. Now imagine what would happen if that misplace string were placed into another dimension, then what would become of our sweater? Would two different sweaters exist: one with a hole and one slightly thicker in overall feel? Or perhaps, there would only be one sweater; though the string can move from dimension to dimension, we can’t. So, we’ll never know what’s on the other side.

And on the other side, my Nintendo 3DS is black. For me, probably the most anticipated piece of technology besides earbuds that can last more than one year. Now, I’ve been asked before “why are you so enthralled by the 3DS, after all, real-life is already 3D?” Speechless then as I am now, I have no answers to that once posed question. All that I do know is that on a first run, I thoroughly enjoy my new piece of technology. 

Hot thing, barely 21
Hot thing, looking 4 big fun
Hot thing, what’s your fantasy?
Do U wanna play with me?

Hot thing, baby U dance so good
Hot thing, baby I knew U would
Hot thing, tell me what U see
Hot thing, When U smile, when U smile, when U smile
Are your smiles, are your smiles 4 me?

The Box:

For something so small, the box is rather big.  Did you see that? On the backside of the box? We’ve been taken to a new dimension! 3D. Hahaha! I’ve never been there before. But it’s not the box that counts, it’s the gold inside.

The Un-Boxing:

Yes! Just like opening a treasure chest recovered from the bluest to blackest to strangely clearest depths of the mid-Atlantic we find bubbles and a small sense of despair and unsatisfaction. Not to say that manuals are a bad thing. When things get hectic it’s nice to have something other than Google to turn to. Plus we find a pamphlet on Mii Plaza, our 6 AR cards for the pre-installed gaming software, a “Join Club Nintendo” snipet with registration key code (yeah…platinum plus membership like a boss). If you scratch underneath the surface (where’s does your purpose lie?), you’ll find exactly 3 segmented areas: charging station, the goods, the AC power adapter all nicely wrapped in their individual sleeves like comic books wrapped in mylar never to be opened to fresh air ever again because it’s about the preservation and collectibility, not the reading and enjoyment.

The Goods:

Simple enough, we have the power source and we have the console itself. It’s so shiny, as shiny as a mother’s love when her first child comes home from their first day of school and she asks “what did you learn today?” and the child with glee answers “recess!” I’ve noticed that Cosmos black is not the same as black or Wii black or black as day: there is a little color blending going on from light to dark, similar to sky to earth, but grey with a little black. It’s still sexy.

The Charging:

Yup! It’s true it takes 3 hours of charging before use. Out of the box not as long. But patience is the key to everything, just like Walt from Gran Torino. So while you wait; you can make a grilled cheese sandwich and 2 tacos, Wii it out for a bit, or maybe for once pretend that the Nintendo is not the called the No-Friendo and chat it up with friends and family.

Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
Baby we know better than to try and pretend
No one coulda ever told me ’bout this
I said yeah yeah

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

 It’s On:

Before the excitment begins, you need to set up the 3D experience just like the countdown for flicks shown on an IMAX screen or the THX sound check. Smiling like a school boy when he figures out what good is, I was already hooked on the device from the set up. It’s so real. I can touch it (fingers pinching at nothing).

Once the date, language, parental controls (which is a nice feature actually) and the like are set you finally reach the home page. The first item on the menu is the “Health and Safety Information.” I didn’t read this, but I probably should have. After my first 1 hour of playing with the 3D settings, I just had to fall alseep. So, the visuals will take time to get used to. The first ride is always a little rough. Ha!

The second menu item would be the game card slot. Seeing as to how Nintendo didn’t have much usual Nintendo-released games on the release date, I settled for a close second: I love Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Ninja Gaiden, Dynasty Warriors, Tecmo Bowl, so why wouldn’t I like Koei/Tecmo-released Samurai Warriors? Talk about a beautiful opening with the cherry blossoms and wind and fire and such. And did I mention flying bullets? I’ll admit, this was the reason why I had to sleep-off my first hour of play…it was just too much to handle at once…I’m new, I’m new I don’t know what to do. Nonetheless, the game told me that I “have the spirit of a clown, bringing joy and laughter to the world.” Sexy! Let’s smile and laught together shall we?

The 3rd option is probably my favorite thus far (until more games come out): the 3DS camera. Back in the day Marvel Comics released trading cards, and in Marvel Universe Series 4 set one of the chase cards was a 3D-esque hologram of Spider-Man versus Venom. The pictures taken with the 3DS have the same look of that Marvel hologram without the crappy gold color. It was having some fun with the Magic Kingdom! I can almost touch Mickey!

The 4th menu item is the 3DS sound. Not sure how I will be using this feature, but I changed the menu bar colors to purple, because I make it funky. All that I have to do now if figure out how to nicely record Fever, Chill, some P-Funk, Prince and James Brown on the thing, then I’ll be in business.

Next up are my Mii and my Mii Peeps (aka Mii Plaza)! I made my Mii…tall, dark and sexy. Haha! But my head is a little big. You also have the option of creating a Mii based on the 3D image taken from the 3DS. For some unexplanable reason, the Mii’s generated when I did this made me look like Sleepy the dwarf.

Then we have 2 factory-installed games AR Games and Face Raiders. For AR Games you need the AR cards. By having the 3DS recognize the cards, teh software makes a game out of the affair. It’s actually pretty exciting. Face Raiders has a similar effect, but instead of cards, you take a picture of people or items and the software makes flying faces of the item captured. And you get to show how much love you have for the item by shooting at several variants of it. They kiss you if they get too close. Ha! So it’s all about the love!

When the fun is all but had, said and done, we finish off with the Activity Log, Download Play and Settings buttons. Where you can monitor your actions, monitor other people’s actions and establish rules for monitoring your and other people’s actions.

In the end, I enjoyed and am still enjoying the initial stages of romance with my 3DS. Much like the rest of you, I’m waiting for the core Nintendo games to be released. Hopefully, it will not end in bitter divorce. Of course it won’t! That is until the Nintendo 4DS comes out. Hahahaha!  But until then I’m having my fun. To conclude, if you like beautiful graphics or have an affinity for the visual arts, I suggest that you check out a 3DS for yourself.

I imagine myself inside your bedroom
Oh I imagine myself in your sky
(U) U are the reason there’s bass in my boom
(Oh u) U are the reason I’m high

If u and I were just ten feet closer
Then i’d make u understand
That everything i wanna do 2 your body, baby
I would do 2 your head
Then u’d be hip 2 the deep rush
Deeper than the boom of the bass
With every other flick of the pink plush
The closer we get 2 the space (The closer we get 2 the space)

Don’t u want 2 go? (The space)
Where the souls go (The space)
Where the tears flow (The space)
Where the love grows
Do u want 2 go?

Thank you for reading! Until the next, this is your host signing off.