In the Flesh

You can dress a zombie up but can you take him out?  This is the question asked by BBC’s In The Flesh. It is a three episode Zombie series, that has recently aired here in America. Apparently it has done well enough in the UK, that it has been renewed for a second series.  I watched episode one and it was O-K. 

            It started out well.  Creepy,  abandoned Supermarket, a lone woman looting, and when you least expect it , a zombie attack! But then you pull back and the zombie doing the attacking wakes up in panic.  He is suffering from PTSD.  While most Zombie stories end with a cure, this one starts with it. A drug has been manufactured, that stimulates cognitive thoughts, thus allowing them to live a “normal life” Of course now that he is thinking again, he can remember all the savage things he did back when he was “rabid.” The series is about rehabilitating the zombies (now referred to as sufferers of Partially deceased syndrome (PDS)) back into society and the stigma and racism that they have to deal with.

While I do think it is an interesting concept, I don’t know if I like it. The show is kind of slow paced. PSD victims are given cosmetics and contact lenses to hide their state of decay. Zombie shows/movies can be expensive due to the make-up, and “In the Flesh” they probably use this as an excuse to save money as the zombies can be filmed without their make up for much of the show. Not certain if this is ingenious or a cheat.

Zombie stories hit you on a gut emotional level…you are meant to feel it, not really think about it. People have described this series as the “Thinking Person's Walking Dead,” although if you really do think about it, it makes less sense than most zombie stories. They give the zombies contact lenses, so that they eyes no longer look dead…but the reason that they eyes look dead is because they are rotten and do not work. Therefore Zombies are blind. This doesn't stop the zombies from surfing the internet to find out more about underground website of the “zombie prophet.” There is also no real explanation to why before medication, the PSD victims would attack and eat people in the first place. So I don’t know if the show really deserves the moniker…”the thinking mans’” anything…

For the most part I am against humanizing monsters. While many argue that it makes a story more adult because it is now layered, I think it takes away from the horror and evilness of the monster. The true horror of the zombie, is while it looks like the person you know and love, it is not. That person is dead and gone and what remains is only the husk. I do give the series creater,  Dominic Mitchell points for doing something different with the genre, but I don’t know if it is for me. All in all not really a bad show…a bit slow for my liking….As it was only 3 episodes I was planning on watching the rest before I wrote my critique....but life is short...and there are so many other things I haven't watched or read yet.... and as 6 months have passed since I started this writing this entry ...let face facts... It aint happening... so here it is...albeit a little incomplete....

...Sooo I got an IPTV...oh an yeah sorry it has been so long....

Sorry it has been a while.  I really meant to try to write something at least once every month but life (or something like it) just keeps getting in the way.  I promise I will do better in the future.  October was a busy month for me.  I went to Florida for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, attended New York Comic Con, did the Escape from the Walking Dead survival obstacle course and attended SHIMMER. 

Of course to pay for all that fun, I had to work like a dog (which is an odd turn of phrase as every dog I have ever seen doesn’t seem to do much working or for that matter anything at all).  Now currently I work retail, which I am not fond of.  I used to be a paraprofessional, which I would much rather be again….but I digress….

With the exception attending the House of Glory wrestling show and the 50^th anniversary of Doctor Who (which I saw in 3-D in a theatre in NYC) the entirety of my November was consumed with my application to the JET Program.  I put my everything into it and I hope I am accepted.  But between applying for JET and work, I didn’t have any time to write in this blog.  But my I have applied (wish me luck) and now I have a bit more time, so here we are.

So I got an IPTV. For a while I had it good. I got a steady dose of Puroresu from my various sources. But unfortunately those sources have for the most part dried up. Well I did what any desperate fan does, I went to forums, searched the internet, and begged people in Japan to record the shows for me and was met with very little success. Unless you can count annoying a lot of people successful… so after several months if this I decided to do what I probably should have done about 14 months ago. I figured out to get these shows myself. They say, “give a man a fish and will eat for day, teach a man to fish, and he will eat for life time!” Of course they also say, “Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Genetically bond his DNA with that of a plant, making him a monstrous, inhuman plant monster, and he'll be able to photosynthesize nutrients forever - or until angry mobs or military forces exterminate him. Alternatively, transfer his consciousness into a robotic body, and he can run on nuclear power indefinitely, eventually going insane as the eons wear away at his frail, human mind.”---or at least PSBlake said something like that…. 

....So I got an IPTV. I have had it now for about 2 months. For some reason I keep missing OZ Academy. ｡･ﾟﾟ･(>д<)･ﾟﾟ･｡ I am timezone challenged or something. This is the 3rd time I got my sums wrong and miscalculated when it airs. Oz Academy is one of my favorite promotions and yet for some reason I keep missing it. I really wish someone would record and up to the internet as I am doing such a bad job myself. I don’t seem to have this problem with anything on SAMURAI TV.so what gives? Is it because SAMRAI’s schedule is easier to read? GAORA sports lists programs airing at 2700 hours??? How does that work when there is only 24 hours in a day? (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ It might be just the fact that SAMURAI repeats everything several times in the same day. I really wish GAORA would do that. Well my next shot at OZ is 1/21, Hopefully, I won’t bollocks it up next time. So far I feel like the worst puroresu capper in the history of puroresu capping….

Fall Anime!!!!!

I have been scoping out the upcoming anime…basically to I can figure out what I should be looking for to download and watch…

Irst on my list is Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! [Wanna be the Strongest in the World] an anime about Joshi Puroresu!  Sign me up!  This particular anime will have team behind Ikkitousen/Queen’s Blade working on it.  Being a big fan of Ikkitousen I feel that it is probably in good hands. I think the action of Ikkitousen and Queen’s Blade is very good…this would be true even if you removed all the fan service shots (of which both series are famous for) The one thing that really separates Ikkitousen from a lot of the other fighting girls anime is that Ikkitousen has a great story.  I haven’t read the manga that Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai! is based on so I don’t know how good the story is, but I hope it is awesome! 

Seeing how I am fan of Ikkitousen, it should come as no surprise that I am also interested in Kill La Kill series.  This is another entry into the fighting school girls genre of anime.  While this genre has  had some  real gems, it also has a lot of forgettable entries as well.  The PV for this anime looks really bad ass so I am hoping this will join the ranks of  Project A-Ko Tenjo Tenge and Ikkitousen.

While were on subject, this fall we will see the next installment of FREEZING. This season is called Freezing Vibration.  I liked the 1rst series so I am excited for this new one. 

Now I know Unbreakable Machine Doll is based on a manga…but I haven’t read it so I don’t know much about it.  The PV looks good but then again most trailers look good.  That is how they get to tune into the show.  Looks kind of like Pokémon but with Cute Girls… But I liked Sekirei so I might like this anime as well. 

O-K I think I have more then covered the Fighting Femmes portion of anime… what about Monster fighting and Giant Robots?  Well there is a new Gundam coming out…but I think that horse has been severally beaten enough..  There a few cookie-cutter shonen animes like  Gaist Crusher….They may be good…but they  look like something I have seen several times before and the little I have read about them hasn’t really piked my interest.  One I was kind of interested in before I read more about it was Seiyuu Sentai Boisutoumu 7. I thought it might be like Akibaranager but then I heard it was going to be a motion comic and I lost interest. Then there is Samurai Flamenco. The adds don’t give me enough to go on but it looks kind of Kamen Rider-esque so I will give it a shot. I don’t know enough about Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road to be excited or nonplussed  about it. Infinite Stratos 2 will probably be very good…but I need to finish the original first.  I own it but for some reason I didn’t finish watching it… but I don ‘t think I stopped because I didn’t like it... 

Another upcoming anime that looks like it could be very good is Pupa.  I don’t know much about this one. It is a horror anime about cursed brother and sister….  Sounds like it could be very gory…. I want to see this but I fear it might be highly censored like Blood-C was.  I couldn’t watch the TV version of it because it was so edited…so I had to wait for the DVD/Blu ray release to come out…  I have a sneaky Suspicion that this anime will be another one of these….

Another upcoming show that looks promising is Coppelion.   Don’t know too much about this show. It is labeled as an action show and if you  The only thing I really know about the series (other than it is a post-apocalyptic anime) comes from this promo trailer.  The character designs and the backgrounds look quite nice… if you start at about the minute fourteen mark it gets kind action packed….  It could be good… Time will tell…

Strike the Blood could either be the most awesome thing ever or it could totally suck…  The PV looks good, well except for the fact that it looks like Vampires are walking around in the daylight.  Vampires in the daylight is a big pet peeve of mine in Vampire stories…  The lead character is supposed to be the world’s most powerful vampire, so maybe this is a special ability…  

The Cat Cat Came Back.....but not the very next day......

Basically this is a follow up to an earlier post...(my family and I) found our cat!  YATTA! It was a lot of worth but it was worth it.  

As I stated in my last post about Rory, he got outside on June 29th.  My mother and sister volunteer for Forgotten Felines, a cat shelter, and we decided that we would adapt some of the cats.  While Rory is very affectionate and he loves to be petted, he as a formal feral cat, does not like to be picked up.  This made getting him back very difficult.  On the bright side it did also mean that most likely he was still in the area, as I knew it would be near impossible for some one else to scoop him up make him their pet. So we had to set traps up where he was sighted and hope that he would enter the trap and that we could get then bring him home. This consumed almost my entire summer. :(
There was a lot of things I really wanted to do this summer, and did next to none of them.  The sad thing was that my Job actually gave me all the time off that I requested, but I was so busy looking for my cat, I didn't get around to ordering the tickets the events, that I had requested the time off for. Usually I request the time off, my work ignores my request, and I have to ask my fellow co-workers if I can switch with them so I can go to the event I had bought tickets for.

I learned a few things this summer.
I never knew how many how much wildlife lives in our area.---especially possums!  I f I never see another possum again it will be far too soon.  Every time I checked the trap, it was never a cat--it was always a possum. My sister and mother found other cats and raccoons....but not me. and The possum would leave the trap either, even after I opened the trap...  I would come back hours later to reset the trap and he would still be there. When it would finally leave, if there was another trap nearby it would go into that one.  I think we might have caught our cat much sooner, if all our time wasn't wasted with possums.

I really don't like the country at all. I always knew I didn't like country or suburbia, but I don't dwell on it for it is a just a train ride to get me into a city...  I spent more time outside this summer than I have done in the past and I don't like it.  There are far too many insects and I am allergic to almost almost every kind of plant out there... It was extremely hot this July, which made it even worse.

My neighbors yards are large with far too much foliage that I am allergic to and can hide a cat.

By August, we figured that Rory was probably hiding in the cellar/under the porch of one of our neighbors houses.  The spend most of the summer somewhere else and apparently have enough money to burn to keep the air conditioner running and the lights on 24/7.  I noticed that the window into their cellar was pushed open from the outside.  I don't know if Rory did it but some wild beast seeking shelter did.  I wish I had enough money that when I went on vacation I could make certain that the local wild life could live comfortably in my house.  I probably would have gone through the window to look for Rory if I had actually proof her was there.  My sister saw him under the porch, but I did not.  While it seemed like a good home base for the cat, I needed a little something more to go on before I did something that might get me arrested.  we did put traps in the area and eventually we caught him.

For the 1rst several days he lived in the guest bathroom. He was very skinny but he looked very good for his ordeal.  We had to quarantine from the other cats, as he had been outside for close to 2 months... and we was full of fleas.  We didn't want them to spread the other cats and this way way while we deflea-ed him we would only have to flea bomb that bathroom and not the entire house.

At 1rst he was very shy and hid in the cat carrier we had used to

bring him to vet, right after we caught him, but by the end of the 2nd day he was roaming around the bathroom and looking for affection.  He was very hungry and would eat anything we gave him.  I knew he was getting better when he starting being picky about  his food again. 

There was also some re-adjustment with the other cats. It was as if he lost his spot. But things seem t worked out and once again all is fine with the cat posse    

I guess TNA now stands for Tara's Not Around

Well I was originally going to do another review of the best Women’s matches of last week. I was all set to praise TNA for their Knockouts Ladder Match, and while I was in the writing process, I stumbled upon the news that TNA released Lisa Marie Varon. She was until today known on TNA as Tara and before that was Victoria back when she working for WWE. That news sort of took the Mickey out of my piece. Maybe if you ask really nice… I might finish writing that entry…maybe not…

Now I wasn’t really going to write about Tara as she didn’t really do anything that week (She might have come out with her on screen boyfriend for his match or she might been featured on Xplosion but I am not certain) but it is the principle. I kind of felt the KO division looked said a couple of weeks ago when Brooke held her “State of the KnockOuts” address. Tara was strangely absent from that as well (foreshadowing?) But TNA has had a couple great women’s matches….Matches that people are talking about…TMZ is talking about these matches… Even WWE seemed to take notice and put more effort into their own women’s division. The ladder match that I was going to write about even drew the highest quarter-hour rating on the July 11th episode of iMPACT! This means that people tuned in just to see that match… probably people that are not the average viewer of TNA. This is what TNA needs if the ever want to beat WWE.

And then they do this. True, Tara is not part of the feud that is exciting everyone, but she is a well know wrestler, one with a large fanbase, and if TNA wants to keep this momentum up then should be giving us more Knockouts not less.

I can’t say I am shocked because TNA has a history of dropping the ball and either misusing someone or under using them. They did to the X division. They were all about the X division. People were buzzing about it. It is almost like they overheard someone going on about the X division and people in charge went…”we don’t want to be known as the place for high flying cruiserweights….” And then TNA practically killed it. They did it to knockouts back in 2007/2008. They were all about the girls. They had two women’s matches a show. People wear talking about TNA as being the place to go to see women’s wrestling. And then like a child with ADD, TNA put the girls on the back burner and focused on Tag Teams. They are all about Tag Teams…until they decided they were not… then Hogan and he crew came over and TNA decided they were all about legends…and then they were not. Then TNA decided to stick to WWE and started their Wrestling Matters campaign… but ditched it so they could have long drawn out talking segments like WWE … Somewhere in between they decided they were hardcore but after a month or two they wussed out.

It just seems like every time TNA has something that could take them to the next level…they sabotage it. Like they want to fail…that they like being in second place. The thing is, I really want to like TNA. In fact back in 2006-mid 2008 I was really into TNA. Maybe I was insane back then, but enjoyed the all the angles. I would read the spoilers and I couldn’t wait to see the program. At the time I felt they were a wrestling alternative to the WWE. When the show went from 1 hour to two hours I thought they were on the verge of something big…that IMHO never quite happened

.

Maybe I am being unfair to TNA. Maybe I am just a ranting and raving angry mark. Maybe Tara wanted her release. Maybe I am reading too much into it. While that is a lot of maybes, the truth is even though I generally find TNA’s product frustratingly disappointing, I still think they have a better product than WWE. But that isn’t saying much. That is like asking me to compare 2 glasses of curdled milk then tell you which one tastes better. I should probably think about that Ladder match last week. It was sooo good. Gail won and now has a title shot and that is great news.

Reina de Reinas 2012

コミカル＆セクシー　プロレスリングWAVE　VOL．22 by Kingughidorah 

The Reina de Reinas championship is the women's world title of the Mexican wrestling promotion AAA (Asistencia Asesoría y Administración ) It has been around since 1999 and it is currently the only women's only championship in AAA. Reina de Reinas basically translates into " Queen of Queens Championship "Not only is a a belt that is defended in traditional singles matches, there is also an annual tournament, where the winner is crowned the champion! On November 27, 2012, when AAA held the tournament in Tokyo Japan in association with Pro Wrestling WAVE.
 
Comical and sexy Pro Wrestling WAVE VOL. 23 by Kingughidorah



The card for the show was :

Moeka Haruhi/Makoto -vs- Aya Yuki/Sawako Shimono -vs- Shu Shibutani/Cherry -vs- Hikaru Shida/Nagisa Nozaki -vs- Yuu Yamagata/Ryo Mizunami *5-Way Tag Title #1 Contenders Survival Match.

Sakura Hirota -vs- Ran Yu-Yu.

Sexy Star -vs- Jennifer Blake.

KAGUYA(Mio Shirai) -vs- Fabi Apache.

CIMA/Ayako Hamada/Bachiko -vs- Pimpenela Escarlata/Fenix/Lolita.

Syuri -vs- Ayumi Kurihara.

Kana -vs- Yumi Ohka.

Tsukasa Fujimoto/Misaki Ohata -vs- GAMI/Tomoka Nakagawa. *WAVE Tag Title

The winner of Sexy Star vs Blake vs the winner of KAGUYA vs Fabi Apache *Reina de Reinas FINAL*

The matches that evening were broadcast both on Mexican and Japanese Television. I have found video of both the AAA broadcast and the WAVE broadcast. It is interesting to see how different companies view the same material. Personally I prefer the WAVE broadcast as it includes almost all the matches, while the AAA version only includes matches with AAA wrestlers involved. One thing I do like on the AAA broadcast is, the documentary style video package showing the wrestlers in Japan and general build for the Reina de Reinas tournament. While I enjoyed that I was disappointed the AAA coverage did not include the Kana vs Yumi Ohka or Ayumi vs Syuri.

Still It is always interesting to see how two different companies view the same event.  I was reminded the differences from watching NJPW's  Wrestle Kingdom II and watching TNA's Global iMPACT...even though they are essentially the same event....  

My Cat is Missing! Please help me find my Rory!

Have you seen this cat? If you have then please call me @860-388-2883, tweet me @King_Ghidorah or email me ASAP. My cat Rory went missing. i have been looking for him for days T_T He is an orange tabby indoor cat who got outside, who was formerly feral. He is very timid and scared. He was last seen June 29 between 540 and 536 Main Street, Old Saybrook, CT (near intersection of North Cove Road)

I have thought about posting this for a couple of several days, But I don’t know how many people local to me actually read this….. so I am not certain how much this will help, but anything that gets the word out is good. Any information would be appreciated.