Tuesday, July 6, 2010

July 06: Time travelers, robots ...apathy.

July 6, 1957: John Lennon Meets Paul McCartney. Happy birthday to Frida Kahlo, Paul Gasol and Cassanova Frankenstein himself, Geoffrey Rush. Regards to George W. Bush.


I read Scott Pilgrim vol. 1-5 recently and strongly recommend them. Good story, fun art, interesting characters and enough videogame nostalgia to keep anyone raised by a sega genesis smiling.

Some other recommended reading:
Books:
For Us, The Living - Robert A. Heinlein: Heinlein's first book, unpublished until 2003. "Perry Nelson, a normal 1939 engineer, is driving his automobile when he has a blowout, skids over a cliff, and wakes up in the year 2086." Heinlein uses a utopian future to explain his social and political beliefs.

Manga:
Pluto - Naoki Urasawa: Retelling of "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, presented as a murder mystery. "Pluto follows the Europol robot detective Gesicht in his attempts to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths. The case becomes more puzzling when evidence suggests a robot is responsible for the murders..."

Solanin - Inio Asano "Meiko and Taneda graduated from university two years ago. Having no real goals or direction, they step into society, clueless." A two volume manga about the reality of post college life in Tokyo. Jobs, relationship issues, parental disappointment and a struggling band portrayed realistically. A story of two unmotivated twenty somethings trying to make a relationship work.

For a better review of Solanin go here.