notes on/from Tonks, FAKE, Haru, NYT, Politifact, and WSJ [2/2]

[bronze_ribbons]

Ok, lunch break. I'm browsing through Amano Masanao's MANGA (Taschen 2004) bit by bit, and I just found out what happened to pre-HBP Tonks: look at this cover! (Haven't read the series yet, but I am intrigued: the Taschen writeup calls it "a violent action tale depicting a female assassin called "Bambi," who is a virgin and eats only natural foods. Although there is plenty of bloodshed, murder, and violence, the story is not told from a humanistic viewpoint, but the actions of the main character are firmly based upon her policies.")

More on FAKE, and why I'm enjoying it:

Guys in ties

Guys still dressed but barefoot while smooching

Feisty girls and women with great earrings

Multiple hurt-comfort scenes

Massive UST, with hilarious interruptions

There will be fic. Or at least drabbles. I'm hoping to get my Snape/Whomping Willow for the Hadron Collider fest done early enough that I can make a second claim - there's a Japanese FBI agent in the second season that I'm eager to put in the same universe as Snape...

Haru wo Daiteita:
You know a new fandom has you firmly in its grip when it has you looking up Greek restaurants in Japan just for a drabble.


From this morning's New York Times:
For Ex-G.O.P. Official, Obama Is Candidate of Catholic Values. As someone with friends on both sides of the abortion issue, I found this profile of an prominent abortion opponent who has written a book on why Catholics should support Obama to be heartening -- because, while Mr. Kniec and I disagree on whether abortion should be legal, we do share common ground in our beliefs that society would do better to focus on "the social and economic conditions of women":

Kniec: Senator Obama’s articulated concerns with the payment of a living wage, access to health care, stabilizing the market for shelter, special attention to the needs of the disadvantaged and the importance of community are all part of the church’s social justice mission.

Applying this to the issue of abortion, the senator has repeatedly indicated that he is not pro-abortion, that he understands the serious moral question it presents, and, most significantly, that he wants to move us beyond the 35 years of acrimony that have done next to nothing to reduce the unwanted pregnancies that give rise to abortions.

NYT: But all the same, isn’t your support at odds with Catholic teaching?

Kniec: Quite the contrary. Senator Obama is articulating policies that permit faithful Catholics to follow the church’s admonition that we continue to explore ways to give greater protection to human life.

Consider the choices: A Catholic can either continue on the failed and uncertain path of seeking to overturn Roe, which would result in the individual states doing their own thing, not necessarily, or in most states even likely, protective of the unborn. Or Senator Obama’s approach could be followed, whereby prenatal and income support, paid maternity leave and greater access to adoption would be relied upon to reduce the incidence of abortion.

It is, of course, not enough for a Catholic legislator to declare himself or herself pro-choice and just leave it at that, but neither Senator Obama, who is not Catholic except by sensibility, nor Joe Biden, who is a lifelong Catholic, leaves matters in that unreflective way.

In my view, Obama and Biden seek to fulfill the call by Pope John Paul II, in the encyclical “Evangelium Vitae,” to “ensure proper support for families and motherhood.” It cannot possibly contravene Catholic doctrine to improve the respect for life by paying better attention to the social and economic conditions of women which correlate strongly with the number of abortions.

Also, here's Politifact's analysis of McCain's 19 votes against proposals to increase the minimum wage.



And, in this morning's Wall Street Journal, there's an interview of Nick Harkaway, author of a new action novel:

Cynthia Crossen: Did you read a lot of comic books with superheroes when you were a kid?

Harkaway: I still read them now. I probably read more now than when I was a kid. I like to say I read the more intelligent ones. But I'm getting into my second book now so I've banned comic books from my life. My book has to be more fun than anything else I could be doing on a Tuesday afternoon. If it's not more fun than playing [World of] Warcraft for me, it won't be for anyone else, either.

Comments

[snapelike.insanejournal.com]

"You know a new fandom has you firmly in its grip when it has you looking up Greek restaurants in Japan just for a drabble."

Which is why I now know the technicalities and about 20 different terms for various types of kimono. And the exact whereabout of several parts of Tokyo and where to go for shopping this and that. Well... research is half the fun when writing.

[irena_candy.insanejournal.com]

I am an obsessive collector of reference books. I have books on ancient history, guns, taxidermy, archaeology, wax painting, insects, bead weaving, etc, etc. I comb the used book store for weird out-of-print texts just because someday I might want some of that info for story background. Hey, you never know!

[ureima.insanejournal.com]

"You know a new fandom has you firmly in its grip when it has you looking up Greek restaurants in Japan just for a drabble."

Did you find any? We once tried looking for Greek restaurants here in Tokyo. So far, we only found 2 restaurants, one in Shibuya and the other one with a branch in Omotesando and somewhere else.

[bronze_ribbons.insanejournal.com]

Nothing to speak of, although I did come across some interestingly opinionated discussions such as this one: http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+23559. Did you try either of the places you found?

[ureima.insanejournal.com]

I found these two restaurant (Spyros has two branches):
Agean - http://www.tokyo.to/aegean/index.html
Spyros - http://www.spyros.jp/index_e.cgi

We've tried Spyros in Harajuku, but I'm not completely convinced with the restaurant. I have no previous experience with eating in a Greek restaurant, but my husband kept telling me how great it is to eat Greek in Europe. I think the restaurant also didn't live up to his expectations. But well, we're in another continent from Greece.

I read a review about the Aegean before where the writer complained that the food was microwaved and the servings were small and overpriced.

[bronze_ribbons.insanejournal.com]

Good to know - thanks for the info! (I expect to be in Japan for a conference later in 2009, and it's always helpful to learn what to avoid as well as what to seek out.)

[lore]

Isn't Fake a pure delight? I'm so happy you found it! The idea of fic is yummy, too! *HUGS*

love, lore

[bronze_ribbons.insanejournal.com]

It's funny - it's something I never would have picked up on my own, and it's fortunate I didn't start with the first volume: non-Asians wanting to use my Chinese name = very uncool = Dee would have REALLY turned me off if that had been the first thing I'd read about him. But I read 2, 4, and 7 before getting to 1, and by then, I was totally sold on him. :-)

(Btw, I think my variation of your putting-off-reading-the-last-volume-of-a-series is putting-off-reading-other-stuff-by-the-same-author in favor of rereading whatever I'm currently obsessed with over and over. Last week my husband asked me, "Aren't you done with those yet?" when he saw me revisiting some favorite panels from 5...)

*hugs back*