FIND OUT by watching EGGHEADS on BBC2 at 6pm tomorrow (Fri 6 Jan). Will Ali Sparkes (front left) bring shame upon authorkind if she gets the Literature round? I couldn’t possibly tell you (they’ll send the Eggheads attack dogs if I do) but it’ll all be out there tomorrow teatime…
Ever since I arrived in Japan I’d been wondering when I was going to run into these guys:
They’re tanuki. I first learned about them and their unusual, um, anatomical powers from the brilliant Studio Ghibli anime Pom Poko, in which they star. While tanuki traditionally tend towards mischief rather than malice, it’s best not to rub them up the wrong way. Something that didn’t appear in that story was that the males are known for occasionally smothering enemies to death with their gigantic, shape-shifting-
No. No: this being a family site I won’t say which part of their anatomy they use. But if the, erm, generous proportions of the guys in the pic above don’t provide a clue, perhaps this Wikipedia link about tanuki will help.
Before taking the photo of these tanuki I made sure to ask their permission very, very nicely. Then I thanked them, told them I was glad to have met them, and walked away very, very fast.
Moving (gratefully) to cojones of a metaphorical nature, I’m enormously inspired by this awesome interview with Maurice Sendak, which I caught last week on Boing Boing.
Anyone hoping for a sequel to Where the Wild Things Are might want to prepare themselves for bad news, though. ;p
Sam
If you’d like to know how to look this good…and more Goblin advice on preparing for a night out partying then go to my blog here: www.davidmelling.co.uk/blog
Enjoy!
One reason I came to Japan was to look for monsters. One place I’ve found them is Mandarake, in Nakano Broadway.
It’s a hive-like mall of small stalls selling manga, anime, idol merch and all kinds of other stuff. My favourite things were the toys and figurines from old tokusatsu films and dramas.
Everything was lovingly preserved and going for eye-watering collectors’ prices. Some items were quite charming and endearing…
…others less so.
More pics from Tokyo at my current blog.
Having met Sam Osman at Broxbourne during the North London Regional Final of the Kid’s Lit Quiz, I learned enough about her new series to be intrigued. I always enjoy reading fantasy and this book was no exception. QuickSilver is not your typical fantasy, though: no big battles to speak of, no particularly memorable madcap chase scenes and no visible bad guys. Instead, a compulsive mystery adventure based around lost ancient wisdom and the hidden power of the Ley Lines, with the shadow of a secret organisation constantly following three main protagonist children as they unravel the threads of lost knowledge.
It’s hard to compare this book to anything else that I’ve read in the fantasy field. I found the constantly unravelling prophecies regarding the children drew me through the story. In particular my growing desire to work out which characters were really helping the children, and which ones had a hidden agenda, kept me reading and thinking all the way to the end. And no, I didn’t guess the identity of the main villain, so as far as I was concerned, he remained suitably cloaked in mystery until the big reveal at the end.
This was a well-constructed mystery story with plenty of colourful characters and a constantly evolving plotline to hold the reader’s interest. If solving mysteries is your preferred type of reading, then why not go and buy yourself a copy of QuickSilver by Sam Osman? See if you can do better than I did at working out who the villains are!
Another year has passed since I last made some music recommendations. So here goes…
That people are out there tracking down strange, amazing, otherwise-impossible-to-find things and showing them to the world is probably what I love most about living in the internet age. But what was new in 2011 for me was that much of the music that thrilled me this year reached me in the form of compilations.
Independent music suppliers Boomkat are brilliant at finding and recommending music. Their compilation site 14Tracks has been an absolute highlight of my year…
Every week brings a new themed selection – always interesting, sometimes nothing short of stunning. If you’ve time to spare (warning! it’s addictive!) check out the 14Tracks back catalogue: it’s full of treasure. Examples? Concrete Phantoms collects jaw-dropping experimental music from back when sampling was done by splicing tape: I’d read about this music but had no idea how to go about hearing it, so I was (and continue to be) astonished and delighted by that one. Other 14Tracks favourites of mine include the teeth-whiteningly awesome industrial racket of No Hat, No Boots = No Job, and whenever I want to feel like I’m in a seedy Italian horror movie – which is often – A Giallo Thriller has me covered.
Despite the blow of losing most of their stock in a warehouse fire during the looting in the UK back in August, self-styled ‘B-Music Specialists’ Finders Keepers Records continued to dazzle me this year. I already loved their perfectly-preserved pick of ’60s/’70s Persian pop, Pomegranates, and lots of other musical goodies from them besides. But then came this…
Bollywood Bloodbath is blinding. That’s all I’m going to say. Hit this link and hear for yourself. 
My third and final compilation recommendation comes in the form of a book: Seasons They Change, by Jeanette Leech…
With the passion of a fan – but also with the precision of someone determined to do right by its creators – this book introduced me to a world of great music that I’d known next to nothing about. New favourites for me now found through Seasons They Change include this, and this, and this! For further details on this excellent book and a link to an accompanying Spotify playlist by the author, click here.
What amazing music am I going to hear for the first time in 2012? Here’s looking forward to finding out. Hee hee hee!
Sam
Thanks to @Destroyer_199 for linking to the best thing to come out of the US presidential elections so far:
If Godzilla became America’s president, could Tim become Britain’s prime minister?
Now, that would be a ’special relationship’ I could believe in. ;p
I saw the first reports on Twitter last night as I was finishing up the day’s writing: Russell Hoban has died.
There have already been some fine things written about him. Here’s an obit in UK paper The Guardian. This one from his editor David Lloyd, is my favourite.
Though his creativity remained as strong as ever, Mr Hoban had been physically very frail for some time. I knew, via The Kraken, a mailing list of fans, that he was in hospital again: that’s partly why I posted Door below, as a way of wishing him well. Today I’m very sad.
As well as his warm and wonderful books, he leaves us his example. In a world which often seems like it only cares about the bottom line he pursued his own creative path where it led him, producing beautiful, original, astonishing writing on the way.
In recent interviews he said he’d begun to think of death as ‘a good career move’ – and maybe the flurry of tributes from readers all over the world who’ve been touched by his work will inspire more to discover it. Soonchild, coming in March, looks like it will be another Hoban treat. But right now, rather selfishly, I just wish he was still alive and working, so that I would have more of his books to look forward to, and know that one of my heroes was still there.
Sam
