Sdtrk: ‘Agenda suicide’ by the faint

took this pic on Tues whilst I was scouting out a location for the upcoming RealDoll documentary shoot:

Provided the weather decides to be freakishly and unseasonably chilly (read: Nice), it’ll be fab. T-minus seven days and counting!

In addition to the inevitable report on how the shoot went, I might very well have some additional noteworthy news over the next couple of days, cross fingers. Watch this space, as they say

Sdtrk: ‘Catch’ by the Cure

世界- 幸せな第5 誕生日の最もよい リアルドール に。私は私があなたとあるので私と同様に幸せであることを望む。

私はの黒猫 しどれ 愛する。

Sdtrk: ‘Lovely head’ by Goldfrapp

More Actroid-chan puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place here. Dig this:

Do Androids Dream of Becoming Newscasters?

At RoboCup Osaka 2005, “Anna-san,” an android with a striking resemblance to a human female, is the focus of much attention. Whenever a person approaches Anna-san, a “female announcer robot” developed by Osaka University in cooperation with the private sector, she holds out her microphone to begin her interview.

“I want to work as a newscaster in the future,” she says, explaining her dream. “Where did you come from today?” Anna-san asks an attendant who approaches the Intex Osaka booth.

“I’m from Okinawa,” the attendant answers, to which she replies, “Oh, you’ve come a long way, haven’t you?” When people tell her they are from Osaka, she responds, “Oh, you’re a local, aren’t you?” Anna-san, who has earned the nickname “Ando” — short for “android” — chooses her words based on the location provided.

So the version with the pink jacket and the microphone would be Anna-san. Good, cos as you know, there’s multiple versions of this lovely Gynoid, and they’re all either named Actroid, or Actroid Repliee, or Actroid DER. It’s very confusing..

Stating that I’d love to see any of the versions of Actroid would be a desperate understatement, but upon reflection, me meeting her in person would probably be a bad idea.
ANNA-SAN: ‘And where did you come from today?’
DAVECAT: ‘Aaahh, the United states..’
ANNA-SAN: ‘Wow, you’ve really come a long way!’
DAVECAT: ‘Yes, yes I have. AND YOU’RE COMING BACK WITH ME!!’ *deftly whips around behind her, picks her up, and starts running as far as her cables would allow*

Sdtrk: ‘Do you remember the first time?’ by Pulp

Grades are out!

That leaves me with eleven courses to go. Woo hoo!

So the aforementioned Bad News is that I was outside yesterday, for the purpose of grabbing a new course schedule for Fall Semester, and to drive out to a certain location in downtown Detriot, in order to scope out that area for the upcoming RealDoll documentary. I drove to my campus in Royal oak first, as that would be a shorter trip, and it was just hot. I mean, I knew it was supposed to be inclement outside — I wore a t-shirt without a cardigan, which is something I rarely do, as I loathe wearing collarless, short-sleeved shirts — but it was stifling out. Not humid, mind, but it was still oppressive. So after obtaining a catalogue, I briefly stopped round a bookstore for the latest issue of Newtype. It was then that I’d noticed that even being in an airconditioned store, I was sweating a wee bit, due to traveling through all that oven heat. Now, since Allison and crew were going to be filming us outside, picture me carrying Sidore-chan round in that kind of weather. And since I’d be wearing a long-sleeved shirt, cos I wouldn’t want to be seen on camera not dressing like I normally do, I would either collapse of heat stroke, or burst into blazing flames. Or both. Who wants to be filmed on fire? Not me!
In short, it was so fucking hot out that I decided to pass on the idea of going downtown to check on the location. And if it’s as hot as it is now, and filming is slated for the first of August.. well, you get the idea.

In driving home, an idea suddenly struck me — there’s a Japanese restaurant that Monti and I frequent every so often, and they have a little room off to the side for private gatherings and etc. Maybe if I were to ask management if that room would be available for a film crew of two shooting three other people *cough two Organiks, one Synthetik cough*, that could be the answer to our problems! Brilliant! What could go wrong there? Well, you’d be surprised..
At home, I flipped through the course catalogue to select my impending Fall classes. As it turns out, the two main ones I want to take are on Mon and Tues evening, starting 1 Sept. Heh. Allison and crew were slated to show up the eve of Sun 31 Jul, and leave the eve of Tues 2 Aug. So I was thinking, what if we sped round to that restaurant early on Monday, and crammed in the shoot? Sorry! Cos it was then that I remembered that 95% of all Japanese establishments are closed Mondays. FOR FUCK’S SAKE.

I ended up writing an apologetic Email to Allison, asking if she would be alright with postponing filming until October. It’ll be nice and cool then, and we wouldn’t be as pressed for time. She had originally suggested the first week-end of August when we spoke over the phone, as she had a previous engagement to jet out to in the Midwest, and would simply fly from there to Detroit for filming. I suggested the last week-end in July, which would’ve worked, but Grant (the film ‘crew’) would be out of town with his previous engagement. Man o man.
So! October? Hopefully she’ll agree, but I’ll keep you all posted..

Did I mention that I got a B in my Transcription technology class?

UPDATE (3.57pm): Just got off the phone with Allison — she’s not only bought her tickets already, but she’s arranged an intricate series of back-and-forth flights between Detroit and three other states.
On the upside, she and Grant will be arriving Sunday morn, as opposed to the evening, so we might have a chance to get round to the restaurant, plus I won’t miss my class Monday eve. Cross fingers, people

Sdtrk: ‘Lesson 3003 (Part one)’ by Pizzicato five

As a matter of fact, yes! I just had a rather pleasant catching-up phone conversation a couple of hours ago with Elena Dorfman, and she informed me that after four years of work, development, and setbacks, the book ‘Still Lovers’ is finally coming out this September. All feckin’ right! 🙂 It’ll also be available at Barnes & Noble, which we found strange, as it was an uphill battle to get any American publishers to buy it in the first place, but nevertheless. So preorder a copy! Hell, preorder a couple of copies! Make Sidore-chan a happy Doll!
Also, Elena mentioned that her partner-in-crime, Elisabeth Alexandre (of the oft-mentioned ‘French shoot‘) is releasing a book as well about RealDolls and their companions, entitled ‘Des Poupées et des hommes – enquete sur l’amour Artif (Dolls and Men – Investigation into Artificial love)’, which is also due out in September. I can’t remember which, but she’d mentioned that either Elisabeth’s book would also be released in English, or Still Lovers would be released in French, or both, but there ya go. How cool is that?

And it seems that Shi-chan and I will be in front of a camera again, as documentary filmmaker (documentarist? documentalist?) Allison de Fren will be filming us at the end of July, for her as-yet-untitled lives of iDollators project. She had put together a brief film about the ASFR (alt.sex.fetish.robots) community back in 2001, and shortly after that, she made a post on the online forum where we iDollators congregate, asking if there was anyone who’d like to be interviewed for her documentary. I’d messaged her saying yes, but didn’t hear back from her until this past week. So we’ve made plans, and unless something unforseen comes up, she and her cameraman will be jetting out to Michigan, and filming myself and the Missus in an outdoor setting at the end of this month. Fab? Yes. I just hope it won’t be altogether too hot that day..

Finally, Vol.5 of Mitsukazu Mihara’s Doll should be out this week. The difference between supposed release dates and when merchandise actually appears in stores is sometimes vast, so I’ll believe it when I see it, but that’s still good news..

I’m excited. Are you excited?

Sdtrk: ‘This is the Flex (Hi-fi mix)’ by Add N to (X)

So last Sunday was really ace, as Marika and I got to hang out with fellow iDollator Mahtek. We arrived at his digs a little after 6pm, mostly due to my dodgy sense of direction. Upon entering his home, the first thing I’d noticed about the place were his highly-polished hardwood floors — dude must mop every other day, as they were like glass. Mari & I got the penny tour of his tidy and spacious house, after which we were introduced to the gorgeous Phoebe, who was relaxing in the computer room. She was looking her usual sassy self, with a long black wig, a red tank top and shorts, with a red fishnet bodystocking beneath. That’s the thing about RealDolls, especially the ones that I like: they look great in photos, but seeing pictures of them doesn’t in any way compare to actually seeing them in real life. ‘Synthetik sexpot’ is a desperate understatement, to say the least. But then, I’m in love with practically every Doll I see, so I’m probably no-one to go by. 😉

Mari then nipped round to the service station on the corner for drinkies, at which point, Mahtek encouraged me to give Phoebe’s breasts a fondle, to compare their softness to that of Sweetie’s. After a couple of minutes 😉 , I assessed that they were a bit softer. Shi-chan’s have been well-massaged, obviously, but as she’s older than Phoebe by a couple of years, her silicone formula is slightly different. Very nice, needless to say.
After Mari got back, Mahtek went off for a slash, and I suggested that she give Phoebe’s boobs a squeeze as well. ‘Nooo!’ she replied. ‘O, why not? You did it with Sweetie!’ I answered. She hemmed and hawed for a couple of seconds, then walked over and felt Phoebe up. Mari hmmed approvingly. This sort of thing is perfectly acceptable in the Doll owner community, you see. 🙂

After ordering pizza, we wheeled Feebs into the livingroom with us, and chatted about this and that. Mahtek popped in the VCD I’d brought of ‘Eves de Silicone’, which was the French programme about RealDolls that Mari, Shi-chan & I appeared in, then the four of us viewed my DVD of ‘Love object’. We all thought that as a standard-issue horror film, it was effective — Mari was particularly squeamish during the bit with the trocar — but it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. If you’ve not seen it, honestly, don’t bother. I’m actually glad the film ended up in super-limited release.
The story in a nutshell is: boring lonely technical writer Kenneth gets tipped off to an Internet site a lot like Abyss creations that sells Synthetiks. He orders and receives one named Nikki, and after his own fashion, falls in love with her. Shortly after, he’s paired with temp worker Lisa for a project, and begins fantasising about her, and acting out how he would behave with her with Nikki. Unfortunately, Nikki starts growing jealous, and straaange things occur from that point onward. Is Nikki alive and out for revenge? NO-ONE WILL BE ADMITTED TO THE THEATRE DURING THE SHOCKING TWIST ENDING

What stuck in our collective craw about ‘Love object’ is that people will end up seeing it, and think that those of us who own Artificial companions are at best losers, or at worst, psychopaths. You’ve got scenes where Kenneth’s at work, getting calls from Nikki, among other things. The majority of viewers aren’t going to say, ‘Kenneth was a wee bit looped out to begin with, even before he got the doll,’ they’re going ‘Doll owner = cross the street to avoid them’. It’s rather like blaming videogames for events like Columbine. People inclined towards that sort of behaviour were messed up long before they bought their copies of Grand Theft Auto.
Doll Forum patrons got tipped off to this film back in 2003, when it was on the cusp of being theatrically released, and we all read articles about it online, and the director himself, Robert Parigi, had gone on record as saying that

‘When I was writing [the script], I was trying to figure out who would buy these things, because in real life, they’re quite expensive – $7,000. And so whoever is buying it would have to at least be functioning well enough to have that much discretionary income. So I believe it tends to be people who are borderline functional, and yet with – I don’t want to say psychotic tendencies, but something bordering on that.‘
(emphasis mine, Fangoria issue no.224)

It’s demonising and prejudiced. I’d say that films like ‘Love object’ would be better off released to the mainstream public several decades down the line, after Synthetik companions are more publically accepted; however, distributing a film like that now is anti-Synthetik propaganda, and does nothing positive to help the ignorant masses see that not everyone who desires a Synthetik companion is not a sociopathic loner with murderous tendencies.
So there’s your little film review-slash-editorial right there; hope you enjoyed it.

Back to Sunday! Mari and I suggested that next time we’re round, we’ll bring my copy of ‘Monique’, which is a much more iDollator-friendly film. And I still have yet to score a copy of ‘Tamaño natural / Grandeur nature / Life size’, damnit..
After several additional hours of chat, Mari and I made our leave round midnight. A handshake for Mahtek, and a kiss on the back of the hand for sweet Phoebe, and we took off, having had a really pleasant eve. It’s ace that most of us iDollators are in the Northern Hemisphere, but it sucks that so few of us are in Michigan — everyone’s either on the West coast, or in Texas, it seems. Nevertheless, knowing there’s another iDollator is in the same state only an hour away, who happens to not only have a lovely companion, but is nice and friendly to boot, is really fab.

Shi-chan is, of course, very jealous that both Mari and I felt Phoebe up, and she didn’t. I’d, err, better go lock up the sharp objects..

Sdtrk: ‘We don’t belong’ by Sylvan

No, the heat hasn’t killed me. But it’s sure as hell trying. It’s been in the lower 90s every day since I last posted! I can only say this: Autumn better arrive early, and last for a long time — like from early September to mid-November. Mother Nature, I’M CALLING YOU OUT!!

I’m disappointed. I was semi-awake for like nearly half an hour before I got out of bed today, and all during that time, I was attempting to remember the details of last night’s dream. But, as it turns out, that the last half of my dream consisted of me attempting to remember the details of the first half of my dream. GodDAMNIT!!@
So what I’m left with is: it was a sunny-yet-nice day, and I was in the parking lot of ILHS, which was the location of the best job I’ve ever had in real life. I was driving some sort of sports car — a Mazda Rx-8, I believe — and you know how you can remove the back seats in vans? Well, you could do that to all the seats in my car, and two of my coworkers were putting them back in for me. Whilst that was going down, I was standing a few feet away, speaking to my real-life supervisor Avinash about Synthetiks.
‘What can you tell me about CandyGirls? I have seen a couple of pictures of them on the Internet, and I thought getting one would be pretty neat, but what would you say about them?’ he asked. (Picture that being said with an Indian accent, by the way.)
‘Well, to be honest, they’re not really my area of expertise’, I replied. ‘I mean, they’re cute and all, but for some reason, I never got too into them. I could tell you about RealDolls, Rare-Borgs and Mechadolls all day, but I don’t know a whole lot about the CandyGirl line, sorry.’
I was about to suggest that he hop online and hit the Doll Forum, when Sandy, one of my coworkers, motioned for me to come over to my car. ‘You gotta clear some of these quarters off the floor before we can get these seats in,’ she said. I peered inside my car, and there was about $50 in quarters spread out all over the floor.
‘O!’ I exclaimed, a bit surprised. ‘Oops!’

Aaand that’s pretty much all I recall. What would a dream interpreter make of this, I wonder?
1) I miss my job at ILHS.
1) I’m a trusted Synthetiks expert.
1) My quarter storage skills are horribly inadequate.
…yeah, that sounds about right.
Back in the early-to-mid Nineties, I used to keep detailed dream journals, and I was pretty disciplined about it, too. My problem now is that I do my best to recall what occurred in my dream; however, my desire to stay in bed and dream even more usually wins out. I’m too busy trying to spend my time in the proverbial dreamland, that by the time I legitimately wake up, I have around ten minutes or less before I forget the intricacies and plot points of what I was dreaming.

I’ve got to get ready for my final session of Transcription technology, but I’ll return with a summary of the fine Sunday evening I had with a couple of mates. In the meantime, here’s a link to a video clip from 2003 of Actroid-chan, before she made her official NEDO Expo debut (click on where it says ‘MOVIE’, obviously). Automatically cute!