Sdtrk: ‘Changer’ by Stereolab

Another new version of Actroid-chan? Yes? Perhaps?? Probably not, but this version, which they’re referring to as ‘Actroid Repliee’ (which was her development name), is being groomed for a possible career in broadcasting.

Robots in Step

And now the news, with “Actroid Repliee.” Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro looks after this newscaster robot, which relies on “air servo actuators” to move its arms, head and torso smoothly.

A Gynoid newscaster? That’s an idea so revolutionary, that it revolves.
Little bit of trivia for you: t-dash-san, in that recent Email I’d mentioned, says that ‘Unison‘s President was a employee of KOKORO company which developed Actroid’. Another piece of the Synthetik puzzle falls into place..
More details will be posted here as soon as I hear of them, of course

Sdtrk: ‘Alsh’ by The focus group

Articles of negligible importance:

+ Take the ‘Mod or Fraud’ quiz! TAKE IT!!
I scored 12 right out of 17, which is actually a bit embarrassing

+ New Death in June rarities compilation due out this month, entitled ‘Abandon tracks!’ Funny, you’d think this sort of news would be announced on their website, but it’s not been updated since October of last year. :-\

+ My new favourite music label: Ghost box. They are virtually dripping with that esoteric audio-scientific Sixties British vibe that Broadcast so fervently cultivated in me. ‘Ghost Box is an independent music label for artists that find inspiration in library music albums, folklore, vintage electronics, and the school music room’, they say. O yeah

+ The Main Art Theatre in Royal oak is supposed to be premiering ‘Howl’s moving castle’ this Friday, I believe? Gotta round up the lads for that

+ In playing Otogi for the Xbollox, I noticed something very intriguing. It has what might well be called the best soundtrack for any videogame ever made. It’s like a Heian-era Cocteau twins headed by Brad Laner, if you can dig that shizzle. Lots of taiko drums, lots of shamisen, lots of loops, lots of creepy voices from out of nowhere. Unfortunately, it seems that a soundtrack Cd only exists in my fevered imagination, cos I can’t find one for the life of me. Grrr. And now I gotta buy the sequel??

+ new Japanese mook (one of those Engrish portmanteaus of Magazine + bOOK), called ‘My Doll Friend’, that deals with, well, Artificial companions. Obviously I have to procure a copy by hook or by crook, although fellow Japanese iDollator t-dash (of BACKxFORE fame) mentioned in a recent Email that ‘[On the Japanese Doll BBSes], they say that MOOK doesn’t have the contents which correspond with its price.‘ I remain undeterred!

+ No new Actroid news! Just give it a month or so

+ Finally, it’s supposed to be in the upper eighties outside all this week. Christ in shitty knickers. :-\ One of the things I neglected to mention in my 85 things list is that my ideal temperature is between 60 – 65° Fahrenheit. I can’t stand being out in anything above 75° or so for long periods of time. Sweating is really undignified, unless you’re having it off with someone, and even then I suggest air conditioning

‘Shouting to hear the echoes’. You can’t say you didn’t learn something

Sdtrk: ‘Beat surrender’ by the Jam

What’s that, you say? Actroid-chan is now available for rental? Well, then. *big grin*

I think it goes without saying that I have dibs on her first..

(Info in Japanese at http://www.kokoro-dreams.co.jp/ng/actroid/20040721_actroid2/20040721_actroid2.html; movie at the topmost link here)

Sdtrk: ‘Surfactant’ by Merzbow

So, what have you cats been up to? Huh, really? Me either.

Not a tremendous amount going on with me at the moment, although I did manage to score bargain-priced copies of Phantom crash and Blood will tell. To be honest, Phantom crash has been taking up a lot of my free time, but then, as I’d said, there simply isn’t a whole lot I’m up to right now.

Right, well, there is this (cross-posted from the thread I’d started on The Doll Forum):

Once again, the illustrious Ta-bo-san has yet another link in his diary worth investigating; this time it’s a film that looks pretty ace, called ‘Tamaño Natural’, aka ‘Grandeur nature’, aka ‘Grandezza naturale’, aka ‘Life Size’. Directed by Luis Garcia Berlanga, it looks to be like a 70s version of ‘Monique’. Apparently it was just released on DVD this year. ‘2005 March, DVD was obtained finally,’ Ta-bo-san sez through Babelfish. ‘It is Spanish reissue edition.’

Looks ace! But I would say that.. Actually, I already did say that.

O, and Abyss creations have posted new pics of their RealDolls on offer; that’s definitely noteworthy..

Finally, I have built a haiku out of raw matter. This is what happens when you step outside, by the way.

Oily black bird lands
Pecks at lawn without stopping
He has lots of time

Sdtrk: ‘Cave control’ by Screaming MacGregor

Since Kokoro Company Ltd’s very own spokesmodel is at the Aichi World Expo 2005 right this very minute, they’ve updated their pages concerning your favourite Gynoid and mine (mostly mine), Actroid-chan, with two new movies (click on the Actroid banner, and click on the second link from the top that reads アクトロイド　ムービー公開中, cos the URL redirects are making sport of me), and a handful of new photos. Apparently, as they have an Actroid-chan working each of the information kiosks at the Expo, Kokoro has developed three different versions — one for each entrance — plus a sexay new standing version that does the emcee duties in another part of the exhibit. Roger that, and drooling now. Yum.

Miyu-chan, the East gate entrance Actroid

Sakura-chan, the North gate entrance Actroid

Sara-chan, the West gate entrance Actroid

the MC version at Kokoro’s Robot Station exhibit

Also managed to find this link, on a Japanese robot developer’s blog, to a very brief .avi of the pre-Expo Actroid-chan. Very cute, but she seems a wee bit irritable! Which I guess would make sense, if you had people poking you once every ten minutes to see if you were ‘real’ or not.

‘Please stop poking me already; it’s rude’

And (copied and pasted from my post about it on the Doll Forum) can’t believe I forgot to mention this before: Tokyopop is translating a somewhat new six-installment manga series called ‘DOLL’. It’s a loosely-related grouping of various tales having to do with Androids and Gynoids — called Dolls, obviously — and how they affect the lives of those who own them, those who hate them, and those who love them. They’re by one of my new favourite manga-ka (manga artist), Mitsukazu Mihara, who used to do the covers for the Gothic & Lolita Bibles, until she apparently started asking for too much money.
Like I said, there’s six issues total; they’re up to No.4, which I just picked up the other day. Ace artwork, compelling stories, and all about a subject we love so dearly. Give it a look!

Finally, this is a fab article that ran in The Japan Times last year that might help to explain the rationale behind a lot of us who own, or are aspiring to own, an Artificial companion. Damnit, Japan’s got it all over us!

‘Shouting to hear the echoes’. The only Blog you’ll ever need, for unashamedly biased Android / Gynoid / Synthetik / high-end love doll development news

Sdtrk: ‘Love dance of the Saroos’ by Joe Meek

Sweetie and I did another photo shoot on Sunday, which turned out pretty well.

I’m thinking that eventually Clicky Mk II, our seven-year-old, 1.3 megapixel digital camera, is going to need to be replaced, cos half the shots are darker than I thought they’d be. Still, we managed to get 50+ pictures in, so we got something accomplished..

Also, looking at my SiteMeter stats (thanx Brian, for getting me obsessed about this sort of thing 😉 I’ve noticed over the course of the week-end, there’s been quite a lot of humans stopping round ‘Shouting etc etc’ via Google, using the keywords ‘davecat’, ‘realdoll’ and ‘shi-chan’; I’m talking about 14 out of 30 hits from both Saturday and Sunday. Also, most of them seem to be from Canada. Hrm. Did that episode of ‘SexTV’ air again or something?
*waves frantically* HALLO, FROSTY HUMANS FROM THE NORTH! Leave a comment or something, cos you’re kinda creeping me out

Sdtrk: ‘All tomorrow’s parties’ by the Velvet underground and Nico

Just so you know, Sweetie’s site has been updated, for those of you who are into that sort of thing, of course..

And isn’t Devil may cry 3 out today? What the hell am I doing at home??
*runs out door*