J-Pop sensation, LiSA, started doing concert shows 13 years ago and it is 10 years since she first did the US, and oh yes, her latest concert film is LiVE is SMiLE ALWAYS -LANDER-. It was released in the US 19 August 2024 so it may still be out now.
Here, Crunchyroll’s The Anime Effect dips into LiSA’s life, favourite theme songs, favourite anime, Spiderman and comicon stuff (Spiderman!!)
Here’s a takeaway from the show – Sherlock Holmes must be re-envisioned with: Holmes played by Mao Mao (from The Apothecary Dairies) Watson played by Anya (from Spy x Family)
Running Time 24 Mins Sub titled (it might be dubbed but would you really want to listen to someone else’s voice-over to LiSA???)
Just in case you don’t know, LiSA’s hair is pink… I totally get that.
………. I added a race of demi-humans with pink hair in my latest work because it works. They are the hibiscii, so guess where that pink is from… (basically hibiscus = red flower) oh and Demon Fire is a long way from finished
My first story was written in my early twenties, friends having suggested I give this a go, and so this was an exploration of where I could take an idea. I still have the manuscript. Until that point my narratives were limited to schoolteacher prompts. On the other hand I was well used to writing down the key words which would call to mind an idea, a motif. Although I didn’t see that as writing, many years later, that practise served me well. So I’d have an idea that I didn’t have time to develop – but wanted to return to. The right words become a kind of keystone to unlock the concept. After the long, long haul of my first novel, I experimented with it.
I should conclude by saying I don’t lose ideas I’d like to develop, but sure end up with a lot of stories I’ll never complete!
I’d like to showcase a cover from one of Philip K Dick’s earlier works: Clans of the Alphane Moon. Dick’s works had interesting aspects which in turn I admired and was yet frustrated by. His best period was in the mid 1960’s from which point he produced classics such as Galactic Pot-healer and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? We now revere him pretty much unreservedly but, looking back, it’s pretty clear that he could have done with a good editor. The catch was, back then it was nigh on impossible to get a publishing deal – for SF writers. Robert Heinlein had achieved this all but impossible feat – Heinlein stood out in a time when SF was all but a literary graveyard. Dick? Well he’d a good record on short stories back in the early ’50s but his early SF novels weren’t a standout.
Anyhow I collected as many of Dick’s works as I could… and Heinlein, and Asimov, and Arthur C Clarke, Andre Norton. That’s what you did to escape the sink estate you lived in.
Writing tip
– you’ve written a long novel at over 200k words and it’s your first work… If it doesn’t fit what an agent is looking for, it will go straight to the trash pile, if it does be prepared to cut, rewrite or restructure. 200+k is a big ask for a first novel – someone will have to read / critique / edit at the publisher end. Before you take that step, consider writing a novella*, getting it professionally edited and studying the editor’s comments – in that way you can pick up on systemic writing flaws. I assume you have no publishing connections but if you have, use them. First novels are great for practice – be prepared for this to be so. If you’re looking for help on finding a professional editor, my experience in hiring Stephen Cashmore of the Society for Editors and Proof-readers was helpful. This Society is now a Chartered Institute.
* A novella is anything between about 18k and 50k words. ie too long to be a novelette and short enough to not be a novel.
A brief history of the Uighurs – originated as Altaic nomads, became constituent elements of a succession of Central Asian empires and nomadic confederations including the Mongol Empire. The Altai Mountains lie on the border of Mongolia and Xinkiang. Xinkiang is mostly desert and mountains and was first occupied by Indo-European speaking peoples. It has frequently formed part of central Asia based empires but at the moment is ruled by China. The current regime in Peking has invested effort in sinicizing the culture.
One of the last Uyghur bookshops is in Istanbul, but as per the article, the bookseller, Mr Turkistanli, is facing considerable obstacles to keeping it open, some of which appear to be orchestrated by Peking. Those that love books and profess an interest in the study of disappearing cultures would to well to take heed of this last outpost.
This region has been known by different names such as Xinkiang, Uyghuristan, Dzungaria and Kara-Khitai. The attached map is a centuries old view of Dzungaria.
The Uighurs were nomads; the nomads humbled China in the C13th… from which the term Eastern Turkestan originates. Dzungaria is a kind of successor state just as both Russia and Ukraine are successors state to Kievan ‘Rus. Earlier states in this arid part of Asia are Kara-Khitai and Naimans, both nomadic peoples. The function of the nomads of the steppes was normally to act in conjunction with the City States of the Old Silk Road to maintain an orderly set of affairs for long distance trade between the Empires at both ends of the oikumene Rome and the turmoil stricken Eastern end (Qin, Eighteen Kingdoms, Han, Xin, Six Dynasties, Sixteen Kingdoms, Sui, Tang….) it’s a long list which only settles after the Liao, Jin and Song were smashed by the Mongols. Converting this to a narrative of steady Sinic influence in the region sounds… well tricky.
As context, Greece, in its former days held the capital of the Roman Empire, Byzantium, which was the western end point of the Old Silk Road – with the eastern end in China. Until the time of the Mongols this was a well frequented route and cities of the Old Silk Road grew rich from trader caravans. The Mongols trashed those cities when they smashed the lost Empire of Khwarezm; they looted, raped and slaughtered their way through its then population of 30 million. Traders were then forced to cough up extortionate protection tollage – for passage through the ruins which still dot that part of the world – effectively closing the road… ultimately that led Europeans to search for other ways to China. In the intervening centuries, an inward looking China failed to change and failed to engage with various technological developments in which it either had a hand or was close to: in particular gunpowder and typography (a key publishing element). As per the Babylon 5 experiment in peaceful diplomatic dialog, it failed.
I used this part of the world for a couple of stories, there’s The Turning Stone, and the yet to be completed Erisse of the Illyany (the Illyany being a people from the river Ili which is the glowing line in the map).
The Turning Stone is set in an alternate world; an archaeological expedition comes across a stone marked by runes. They take it back to NuWrld… little do they realise that this stone holds the key to the continuation of civilisation and mankind’s existence. The guardians set to ensure this item doesn’t fall into the wrong hands have fallen – the protection of the world from the reckless actions of Western archaeologists rests in the hands of Arshaana, a young Tuvan¹ house maid.
Prominent nations of this world are Angevi, Hanan, Muscovy, NuWrld, Quaresmia and Yudael.
¹ The Tuvans are one of many nomadic groups that endured upheaval during the time of the Mongol Empire. This was a time when many peoples were uprooted – city dwellers of the Khwarezmian Empire were driven from their homes and forbidden to return. These people became known as Tadjik and the term became an ethnonym. The penalties for disobeying the Mongols were severe. Nomadic tribes were resettled to ensure the will of the Mongols prevailed.
Ah well – all the maggots are lined up for the best race in town – the race to crown the bestest of best Misery Tax. There’s no real benefit to lining them up in their respective colours because they’re all Labour Red – even though Crony Yellow seems somehow more appropriate.
Labour planned to raise taxes ‘all along’, claims Sunak
So the reality is that Labour spending plans need to be paid for somehow – increased wages in the public sector and the soon to be public sector folks at the rail companies. The one thing you learn about public ownership is it’s a sure fire way to wreck an industry – as the government did with the railways during and after WW2. It failed to make maintain the infrastructure and in fact dumped most of it via their tame consultant – Beeching (btw a quick look at his methodology left me worried).
Other big spending plans include funding for wind farms – which will be paid for in part by a hike in customer energy bills of £1.5bn. He’s also committing £8.3 bn to a new GB energy company.
Cut through the green flim-flam and this is pretty much snouts in the trough as usual.
When you’re following a government as incompetent and disinterested as the Tories were, it’s pretty obvious that you’ll try all the tricks in the book to get what you can from the electorate – so far this is from pensioners, home owners, parents, car owners… bet that only skims the surface. Best to sum it up with Kneeler’s words:
“There is a Budget coming in October and it is going to be painful.”
Starmer’s lot will probably approve this but I have to say it reminds me of anime depictions of evil mastermind bases. Letting my imagination fill in the rest there’ll be cells for correctional activities, banks of secret switches that disable devices, dormitories full of henchmen – loafing about reading manga when they should be on the job
A Day in The Life of a Japanese Anime Director – from Paolo in Japan
Paolo from Tokyo provides an insight into the daily life of an Anime Director. This YouTube episode covers the making of Mayonaka Punch (currently being broadcast on Crunchyroll). Mayonaka Punch translates as Midnight Punch and it concerns the efforts of a bunch of vampires to stay on the right side of civilised behaviour while coping with the pressures of a promoting their bizarre lives on social media without giving away the fact that they’re vampires. They live in a long abandoned old mansion… and you get the picture.
So the director of this animation is Shu; he’s a freelancer and for this anime, he’s working for the P.A. works animation studio, all under the banner of Kadokawa. A single anime episode requires the involvement of 200 people – from concept design to illustration through to voice actors. A lot goes into this and with work days stretching to midnight and beyond, meals are often an afterthought… it’s a big ask.
Every so often I review stuff – this time it’s the turn of OrchidRomance – and online chatting service dedicated to separating lonely men from the contents of their wallets 😀. Fun as long as you engage fully with Open Wallet Syndrome. Here’s my review…
Review 28.08.2024
Orchid Romance – it is what it is – a monetised portal for the romantically challenged.
So I used the free credits (received when you sign up) and chatted with some of the girls that might interest me. I was looking to chat to a Japanese girl but ended up with a medley of Eastern ladies from China and various South-east nations. That’s not disappointing in and of itself as I am fully aware that Japanese society is for the most part either very reserved / introverted and thus unlikely to be on sites like this, or fully committed to their 12 to 18 hour days (not uncommon in Tokyo which is the epicentre of the manga-anime generation) leaving little time for flesh out their lives with RL romance.
So back to Orchid Romance – you chat with the girls on it, and so consume your free credits. The chit-chat is amusing – some are lewd, others thoughtful. Your free credit run out and you can then buy more credits.
Will you meet any love interest? In your head perhaps.
Will you have amusing chats? For sure – and as long as your wallet is open these chats can continue.
If you’re asked for photos, that’ll cost. Can you take your chat to email… the OrchidRomance ecosystem? Well I think that’s a kind of naïve question. The reality is that online interaction is all that’s on offer… and that’s it.
So there’s 風俗営業取締法 1948, a law that regulates businesses providing adult entertainment in Japan. Orchid Romance neatly sidesteps this by offering a no contact, no strings service.
If you’re looking for real romance, look elsewhere.
And what was I looking for? Someone who might have an interest in a gaijin 🙂
What does that mean? Well for car users it means an electric car with all that comes with it – minuses and pluses. For Government, it’s a very different bag – apart from offering inducements to build an adequate infrastructure, it’s about the foregone receipts from road tax and duty on fuel. Given the smoke and mirrors this subject attracts I did a bit of digging – because this is all to be recovered from electric cars and given the detail Government will hold, putting them in a position to apply charging by road miles, reflecting this in a per mile charge make it easier to understand things.
Number of privately owned cars on the road is 33.58 million, of which about 1.19 million are all electric – or about 3%; so by difference, 32.39 million cars are privately owned petrol + diesel. yes electric cars only account for 3% of privately owned vehicles but as this figure grows, HMRC will need electric cars to pay their way.
Road tax
So the current annual intake for Road tax from private vehicles (non-electric) is £7.3 billion which is collected from 32.39 million cars. This gives an average of £225 road tax / car / annum – the £225 being an amount to be recovered from each and every electric car in the future
Fuel levy
The current Levy by Government on diesel and on petrol amounts to about 80% of the cost. The average private car mileage per year is 7,400 miles so on a mileage basis, a car does 60 miles per gallon (13.2 miles per litre) It consumes 561 litres which at £1.50 / litre costs £841 Of this £841 the Government receive £673 – so to continue receiving at this rate, it would divide the £841 by the 7,400 miles to generate an
Electric Levy of £0.0909 / mile.
Back to Road Tax
Given annual mileage for private users is £7,400, we can plot in an average Road Levy of £0.0305 / mile
Finally there’s the investment in the infrastructure. This will work out at between £0.5 trillion and 4.0 trillion and it must be recouped in some way. The cost of this divided between every working person will be £20,000 upwards – Government estimates are notoriously inaccurate and even more notoriously under costed – so let’s say that Government will recover some of this by removing the cheap electric currently enjoyed by electric car users and so, instead of the 7.9p per kWhr currently enjoyed, we insert the current electricity going rate at 34.0p per kWhr, to true up electricity cost (thus ending the subsidies shouldered by the general public).
Electricity cost
100 kWh pack 100 * 0.34 = £34.00 Range 180 miles
Electricity cost – trued up / mile £0.1889
Please let me add that in no way does this truing up of electricity cost, fund the investment in infrastructure – which could easily top £100k per working person.
Anyhow we’re not quite finished yet. To make sense of it all, let’s sum it up into a cost per mile. So let’s see…
Headline cost
£ / mile
Electric levy
£0.0909
Road levy
£0.0305
Electric cost (trued up )
£0.1889
Headline cost / mile
£0.3103
So there’s now enough in the mix to analyse. Perhaps we should – as one particular Civil Service Department Head used to do – toss all the factors up into the air at once and see where each lands.
If you find this interesting, you could do worse than check out the article that prompted it.
VAT is 20% so to avoid hiking prices schools will cut costs. The overwhelming majority of costs are in salaries; ergo private schools will cut staff by about 20%.
Given that 40% + of salary costs are paid to HMRC (NI + income tax)…. to get their hands on the 20% VAT, the government will have to forgo NI + tax on teachers made redundant: quick calc 40% of 20% is 8% – so actually HMRC will be better off by:
Projected VAT hike + 20% Loss from redundancies – 8% HMRC ends up with 12%… simple arithmetic!
Now private schools will have too few teachers so about 20% of their pupils will go into the state system. It costs about £7,000 per year to educate each pupil. This pushes state education costs higher calculation 7k x no of pupils pushed out. Also some private schools will close – there’s one locally which has been on the brink for years. Taken together say another 5% lost so the HMRC’s 12% is now 7%.
So let’s look at things locally: the education system here in Lancashire is systemically broken and has been for years – all I have to do is look at my hometown Burnley where every single secondary school has been in special measures recently. In Accrington, where I live, state schools are over capacity – and the nearest school, the Hollins, it’s impossible to get places in it – for a pretty poor standard of education. It’s only saving grace is it’s not as bad as the other 2 secondary schools in Hyndburn – which are also over capacity. The £7,000 per year to educate additional pupils to a poorer standard will come out of the public purse. I can smell another hike in income tax to pay for hammering private schools – and guess who pays? The public. Little gain to the coffers against increased public expense – a costly electioneering stunt. And given the expected ostracization of displaced pupils, this stunt will harm the life chances of the victims. How much harm? Teacher redundancy calc out of a total 24,000 employed in private education. Number that will lose their jobs: 5,000 minimum pupils per teacher: 20 Pupils forced to change school circa 100,000 100,000 young lives harmed in order to sate the politics of envy.
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