My weekend was full of various family events so, sadly, I don't have much to offer you today. However, I have started thinking about the music reviews I have been putting off. I'm not sure if I should keep the old format, stay with the current format, or try to figure out a new format altogether. So I'm putting it to a vote. Which would you prefer? [poll id="29"]
Favorite Friday
Normally, for Favorite Friday, I post a YouTube video so you can watch it here. This Friday is different. Today I am giving you the link to Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin. It is awesomely hysterical and, even if you aren't a gamer, you'll love it. Who doesn't love a sister picking on her brother?
Warehouse 13
Last night was the premiere of Warehouse 13, the first new show on the new SyFy network. (Yes, that name still makes me gag.) The two-hour premiere started off slow, as most premieres do. Myka, the lead female, was annoyingly brash in the beginning, but, of course, she lightened up by the end. And Peter, the lead male, was pretty awesome throughout the whole thing. It'll be interesting to see where the show goes. At this point, the show could go either way. It could be cheesily awesome, like Eureka, or just plain terrible. I hope it's awesome.
Horsey stuff
When I was younger, I took horseback riding lessons. I loved riding and I loved competing. Now my daughter is getting old enough that she can take riding lessons if she wants. Right now, I think she's afraid of how big the horses are. I'm going to pull out some of my old pictures of me in my riding breeches and hardhat to show her. Then we'll try to get to one of the local stables to show her that horses aren't that scary. I think she'd love riding as much as I did!
Jdorama review: Ace wo Nerae!
Title: Ace wo Nerae!
Translation: Aim for the Ace!
Broadcast dates: 1/15/04 - 3/11/04
Number of episodes: 9
Genre: Sports
Cast: Ueto Aya, Yoshizawa Hisashi, Matsumoto Rio, Uchino Masaaki
Plot: Hiromi Oka (Ueto) has decided to join the tennis team at her new high school. Despite being her first time playing, she has caught the eye of the new tennis coach.
What is good: You get really caught up in the last half of the series.
What is bad: The beginning is very slow and the outcome is rather predictable.
Letter rating: B-
Overall: I generally don't watch a lot of sports series. I'm just not a big sports fan. However, once we got through the "Hiromi sucks at tennis!" theme that looms over the first half of the series, I found myself excited for the next episode. Unfortunately, since the series is so short, it is filled with predictable outcomes. Even when something surprising happens, it gets 'fixed' so that you end up with what you knew would happen. As a whole, it's not an awful show. It would just be nice if it was a little longer so things could be shaken up once in awhile.
Favorite Friday
Tomorrow is July 4. Besides being Independence Day in the United States, it is also Gackt's birthday. As a present, I give you his latest music video, "Flower."
June sucks
June has been an awful month for me. The windshield on my car cracked. One of my rear tires got a hole in it. We were hit with a hail storm last weekend that destroyed part of our tomato plants. There's another hail storm that is supposed to roll through today. Then there were some personal problems with neighbors as well. And now I have some sort of summer cold that might possibly be the flu. (No, don't be freaking out that I have the swine flu or anything. I'm not sick enough that I'm going to die or anything.) So, The Geek Within is officially on hiatus until June is over. Luckily, that's only tomorrow ^_^ Goodbye June! You suck!
Favorite Friday
RIP Michael Jackson
RIP Farrah Fawcett
The State of The Geek
The domain for TGW has been renewed for yet another year. This month marks the second anniversary of The Geek. OK, technically, the anniversary was back on June 1. Way back in 2007, I was migrating all of my reviews and things over from my Vox account. I haven't been watching nearly as many jdoramas since then and that is something I need to fix. So here are some plans for the future: * Watch and review more jdoramas. Even the sucky ones need to be talked about. Possibly retool the format for jdorama reviews.
* Talk more about music. I love music and I've gotten away from talking about it.
* Get back to reviewing video games. I haven't played a lot of games lately. Though I shouldn't just talk about the ones I play. I should talk about the ones my husband plays too.
I will gladly accept any ideas for any other topics you'd like me to talk about. I'm currently into Asian BJD (ball joint dolls) so I can always talk about my experience with various types of dolls.
JDorama review: Kamikaze Girls
Title: Shimotsuma Monogatari
Also known as: Kamikaze Girls
Release date: 2004
Genre: Slice of life
Cast: Fukada Kyoko, Anna Tsuchiya
Plot: Momoko (Fukada) is a Lolita girl. Ichiko (Tsuchiya) is a delinquent. This is the story of their friendship.
What is good: The cinematography is beautiful.
What is bad: Tsuchicya's acting seems very forced and fake.
Letter rating: C
Overall: As a general rule, I'm excited to see live action Japanese movies get licensed in the United States. Unfortunately, for every Death Note, there's a Kamikaze Girls. The movie isn't completely awful. I did manage to get through it entirely. However, it is dragged out and dull. While you would like the characters to better themselves, you don't really care about them and, for the most part, you'd prefer if they just left each other alone for once. The ending is very sweet...it just seems to take forever to get there.