Musings (Part 3)

Some new stuff in the news, articles here and there, and things happening around have prompted me to make a 3rd installment in my Musings series (Here is part 1 and part 2).

• Any Japanese TV program that is about nothing in particular will eventually turn into a show where you watch celebrities eat stuff.
• Anyone who hasn't watched the movies of Mamoru Oshii (押井守) needs to start, now. His movies are both unique visually and in stories, and are a highly rewarding experience. Start with Avalon. It's like a refreshing re-visualization of what the Matrix could've alternately been.
• And while you're at it, watch Satoshi Kon's stuff (今敏), especially Millennium Actress. Kon died of pancreatic cancer at a very young age, but left behind an almost flawless body of great anime.
• I've always been mildly irritated by people who hate stuff just because it's popular. You cried at the end of Titanic, damnit, admit it!
• A true friend is someone you haven't seen in a decade, but when you do meet up within 5 minutes it's like the conversation never ended.
• Japan has been talking about raising the sales tax for over a decade, yet whenever I look around I see bright shining repaved roads, mirrors on street corners to warn you of oncoming cars, and gobs and gobs of old dudes guarding nothing and cleaning up everywhere. Methinks the government's complaints of a lack of funds are just that - empty complaints with no relation to reality.
• IMO it's better to be really really good at cooking 1 food than be kinda so-so but not fantastic at everything.
• It's nice to have a friend who's good at making all kinds of drinks. But do I want to learn to make all those drinks? Why, so I can be the guy not having a good time? Hell no!
• Ebooks are the way to go, IMO, because 90% of what you read you'll never touch again anyway.
• Most of the coolest people you'll meet in your life can go on and on for hours about some bizarre subject no one's ever heard of. If they say they can't, then it must be something truly interesting (or about sex or both).

Oh, and the pic above? It's an izakaya with a giant Ukon no Chikara can on top (Ukon being my 3rd favorite nasty energy drink, slightly worse than Oronamin C, but nowhere near the pure awesomeness of Ripobitan D and it's brotastic commercials).