typed for your pleasure on 13 January 2011, at 12.32 am
Sdtrk: ‘Pieces’ by Blank dogs
Well will you ‘ark at that — another interview. It’s true!
Back in November, Don Recuero and Diana Sparx, of the podcast blog Mindcore, had asked if I’d like to speak at length about the usual blather I’m known for, I suppose. However, there are two interesting aspects that made this a noteworthy experience…
First, the session wasn’t simply centred round RealDolls, or my life with the Missus, but we also took a significant amount of time discussing the future of humanoid robotics in society, so as you’d suspect, it was fun talking about something beyond Dolls for a change. Sure, we spoke about the unique relationship Sidore and I have, both in a fictional and nonfictional context, but the fact that they didn’t just stop there was definitely appreciated.
Secondly, Don and Diana were not the typical interviewers that I’ve often encountered. For one, Mindcore’s previous slant was towards free-thinking and the discussion of atheist ideas, so clearly this was a venue that was more open toward nontraditional concepts. Upon reflection, Don and Diana kinda remind me of V.Vale and Andrea Juno, former collaborators of the counterculturalist press known as RE/Search.
Third, this would be the first podcast interview I’d done, and I have to say, I thought it was pretty neat! A good time was had by all.
Huh! Looks like that was three interesting aspects, then! Math was never my strong point, really.
Go visit Mindcore right this damned minute, and have a listen to ‘Davecat: Man Marries Robot‘, s’il vous plaît. And be sure to let the hosts know how much you enjoyed it! There is no better conceivable way to spend ninety minutes. Fact
typed for your pleasure on 5 January 2011, at 9.25 pm
Sdtrk: ‘The King’s civil calendar control’ by The new lines
Contrary to popular belief, ‘Shouting etc etc’ is a blog that does not speak exclusively about Dolls, Gynoids, Synthetik companions, and the like. It also covers other important subjects that I feel need to be disseminated more often to society. Squirrels, for example.
CAVEAT: This video is so sweet that your teeth will undoubtedly rot out of your head in seconds. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
typed for your pleasure on 2 January 2011, at 4.21 pm
Sdtrk: ‘High speed flight’ by Daphne Oram
Now were it not for The Great ‘Shouting Etc Etc’ Blackhole that happened on the 30th of last December — I thought I could upgrade WordPress without the use of a clever plugin, but Fate had other plans in store — this would’ve been posted earlier. But I’m fairly sure no-one would have noticed, what with all the New Year’s Eve revelry taking place. So all according to plan, then! *strokes chin*
A week or so previous to My Personal Blogpocalypse, alert reader Azusa brought another artist to my attention recently: his name is Yoshitaka Hyodo, and he works almost exclusively with CandyGirls. You simply can’t go wrong with Dolls as your photo models!
‘Well, here’s another fine mess you’ve got us both into’
Contrary to all appearances, this place rated five stars in the Michelin guide
The above pics are from his series, ‘Haruna’s Room‘. And that’s about the extent of my knowledge of this bloke! There’s no English on his site, and it’s mostly text, so I wouldn’t even know which block of kanji to translate in order to find out more. I should point out that that link might be not safe for work, incidentally, but as I always say, it depends on where you work. Perhaps you work at Orient industry, which would be an eerie/amusing coincidence! If that’s the case, then… would you like to help me translate some text??
And continuing the Orient industry-related vibe of this post, you may not recall back during February of 2009, I’d mentioned an artist by the name of Becky Yee, who was exhibiting a photo-essay of hers entitled ‘More than a Woman’ at a New York gallery, which would be the results of having spent time with esteemed iDollatorta-bo-san, taking photos of his cadre of affictitious girls. I’d managed to locate an interview conducted by the website Bongoût, which is an interesting wee read.
Bongoût: How did you connect with this particular collector?
Yee: I frequented a fan website for Dutch wives. Writing undercover, I played the role of a connoisseur of dolls, and got an intimate glimpse inside the head of these men.
The site first originated as a place to go for advice, including maintenance, such as cleaning and repair for your doll. There are chat groups you can join where men will swap stories of how to fix a doll if you break her arm or leg since there is no shops to repair them.
I met many men through this site, but the most interesting to me was the one I decided to work with. He is educated, successful, and career driven. So why is there a need to have Dutch wives? And not just one, but 70 or 80!?
After speaking with him, I learned that he is a spokesman for his cause. He desired to see the flipping of his sub-culture, to have it become acceptable to the public. This is why he agreed with interviews, and was willing to share his story as long as I did not show his face.
Bongoût: At this point, who is it that he can speak with openly about his lifestyle?
Yee: He only speaks openly with the people he meets online. And of course, it takes time for him to build up trust before he would meet anyone in person. However, he has quite a network of men, and some evenings they all meet out at a restaurant and bring their Dutch wives along. the entire article is here
Finally, surely you lot must know by now that Abyss creations will be unveiling their newest lass in the Wicked RealDoll line? That’s right, now you can have an artificial Kaylani Lei reclining on your furniture at home, small as life (she’s 4’11”), and twice as rubbery.
Being 70 lbs and only three apples high makes her easy to take anywhere
If we were to witness a Jell-O wrestling match between a CandyGirl and a Kaylani Lei RealDoll, who do you think would win? Apart from all of us, that is
typed for your pleasure on 26 December 2010, at 1.48 am
Sdtrk: ‘I only said’ by My bloody valentine
Well, as I took December to pretty much its logical conclusion, it’s my sad duty to tell you that there’s neither any Synthetiks nor Doll-related news to report on for this month. Which I find surprising! I blame the loss of Japanese website Robot Watch, as it was my go-to site for robotics news straight from the source; that source usually being either Japan or South Korea. Tch. I mean sure, there’s Robo Times, but it just isn’t the same.
So no new Gynoid news for December! And the majority of Doll manufacturers are either concentrating on fulfilling existing orders or are just plain closed for the holidays. They’re not developing new stuff; that’s for when the holidays have ground to a halt.
So what have I got for you with this, the last ‘Shouting etc etc’ post of 2010? If you enjoy Andy Warhol, particularly Sixties-era Warhol (largely considered to be the Best Warhol), you will more than likely get a kick out of this:
In August 1962, Andy Warhol (American, 1928–1987) began making silkscreen paintings of popular icons, including a series of images of Marilyn Monroe that he began a month after her death. He went on to experiment in portrait making with public photo booth machines, which automatically take four exposures several seconds apart and print them in a strip, like a sequence of film frames.
Combining the seriality of these silkscreen and photo booth portraits with the ephemeral quality of the filmed image, between 1965 and 1966 Warhol shot approximately 500 rolls of film: several-minute silent portraits of acquaintances, friends, and celebrities, including many of the artists musicians, poets, actors, models, playwrights, curators, collectors, critics, and gallerists who composed New York City’s avant-garde scene. Some subjects were invited to the artist’s East 47th Street studio, known as The Factory or The Silver Factory, to sit for their portraits; others were captured spontaneously. At times Warhol left his subjects alone with the camera, creating a heightened sense of vulnerability that is perceptible in the films. His first subjects, seated before a sterile backdrop, were asked not to move or speak (later portraits were shot under more flexible conditions). These films, known as “stillies” around the Factory, were also referred to by Warhol as Living Portrait Boxes, and, later, as Screen Tests. the entire article is here
Through 19 December 2010 up to 21 March 2011, the Museum of Modern Art will be screening several screen tests, as well as a handful of the early Silver Dream Factory silent films, and MoMA invite participants to make their own screen tests, to be displayed on the exhibition website. The Missus jumped at the chance, needless to say, so we made one, and submitted it, and a few days later, it made the cut! You can click here to see the screen tests. If you want to view Sidore’s straight away, you’ll want to click on the ‘View All’ link at the bottom of the screen, but watching the other participants’ entries is also The Nice Thing To Do. In any event, you can marvel at how well she manages to sit absolutely still for ninety seconds! It’s pretty remarkable.
And more than likely, quite a few of you have already seen adverts for this, but come late January/early February, if you’re in the Untied states, Shi-chan and I are going to be atop your overpriced flat-screen telly once again!
TLC TO PREMIERE NEW SERIES MY STRANGE ADDICTION
12-part series to debut December 29th at 9PM (ET/PT)
Los Angeles, CA – TLC is set to premiere new docu-series MY STRANGE ADDICTION on December 29th at 9PM (ET/PT). The 12-part series will document people who are struggling with unconventional addictions. Each half hour episode will feature two individuals who turn to atypical compulsions in order to deal with their emotional demons. The series will premiere the first two episodes back-to-back only on TLC.
Some people turn to chocolate when stressed, others will indulge with a little retail therapy and maybe schedule a massage, but the individuals featured on MY STRANGE ADDICTION resort to extreme and unusual things in an effort to emotionally regulate themselves. Some of the strange addictions explored in each episode are everything from an obsession with a blow dryer, to another eating toilet paper, to spending time with a silicone person, to eating detergent, to extreme body building, and to thumb sucking.
That’s from an actual promotional release, incidentally; I would be the individual that spends time with a silicone person, in case that wasn’t clear. How did this slip under my radar, you ask? Wouldn’t there have been a lengthy and protracted series of posts about your filming experience on ‘Shouting etc etc’, Davecat? Under normal circumstances, yes, but I got lazy. I know; it’s unbelievable, right? But thank Odhinn my longtime close friend and cohort Monti comes to the rescue, as usual, with a brilliant post she’d typed up concerning her perspective of the bits that she was involved in.
‘My Strange Addiction‘ should be an interesting programme, I’m certain. I’m hoping it’s more than the circus tent of freaks that modern television traffics in these days, but you never can tell… And I’ve really got to stop reading the title in my mind as ‘My Strange Addition‘.
So there you are! Sidore and I hope the lot of you had an enjoyable Chrimbo, and want to wish you Happy Boxing Day! Here’s hoping we all have a fantastic and safe 2011!
What do you mean you don’t celebrate Boxing Day? Get off my site.
In 1986, Neil Young (yes, THAT Neil Young) got himself a load of synths, sequencers, effects racks and a vocoder and started going nuts. (If I was a lame Rolling Stone writer I’d say something like “Neil Young traded in his heart of gold for a heart of silicon”, but of course I don’t suck like them). The album Trans was the result, and includes this song about loving a gynoid.
I’m not gonna lie and say that I’m a fan of Neil Young, but I do respect him. The man likes feedback, and any guitarist that can appreciate a good squealing amp is all right in my book. And now that I’ve learned that he’d made an electronic-based album with a song about a Synthetik, he’s gone up a couple of notches, there!
+ Thanks to [INTERNET PIRATES], my friends and I regularly enjoy many films and television programmes from far-off, distant lands; usually the United Kingdom and Japan, mostly. Maybe Korea sometimes, it depends on what they’ve got to offer. At any rate, fellow iDollator bloke Euchre brought a new telly show, currently airing on NTV, to my attention, by the name of ‘Q10‘.
She’s apparently using some pretty hardcore hairgel
One day, while under the influence of alcohol, Kishimoto Jiro, the principal of Shikahamabashi High School picks up a “girl” from the garbage. The next morning, that girl is sleeping in the school premises when she is found by Fukai Heita. The robot girl suddenly comes alive and Heita names her ‘Q10′. ‘Q10′ starts to adore Heita, its godparent, and Heita, who has not been popular with girls all the while, is bewildered. The robot ‘Q10′ is taught by Heita about humans and begins to learn … taken from this site
‘While under the influence of alcohol’, geez. Is the writer an Amish?
The show sounds like an amusing lark, but it’s so niche that it’s guaranteed not to have an official release outside of Japan. Hell, even trying to find fansubbing groups that carry it is rather like searching for a needle on Planet Haystack. It’s properly classified as dorama (that’s drama to all y’all gaijins), and as such, it’s essentially a soap aimed at teens. Obviously the only factor capturing my interest is the Synthetik angle, and even then, it’s kinda tenuous, thanks to the series’ PG nature…
Interestingly enough, referring to the shows my mates and I watch, we’re quite keen on the Kamen rider series/franchise; we’ve been watching them consistently since Kamen rider Kiva debuted back in 2008. The series prior to that was the insanely popular Kamen rider Den-O, starring Takeru Satō as the protagonist Ryotaro. He also happens to be the bloke in the photo above, portraying Heita. The plot thickens! Actually, no it doesn’t; that’s a lie.
Would you like a compilation of scenes of Q10, acting like a stereotypical Gynoid? Sure, why not?
Feeling sentiment for objects is hardly a Japanese phenomenon, it’s a common trait of human culture to anthropomorphize things. Our natural tendency to anthropomorphize allows us to intuitively and naturally connect with objects on an emotional (and comprehensible) level through the projection of one’s personality into the thing. This tendency seems to be closely connected to, or perhaps a byproduct of our abilities to empathize. Human beings are capable of empathizing with one another, and even with nonhuman animals— in evolutionary theory, the ability to empathize has served an advantage that has been reinforced through group selection over time, through perhaps an increase in hunting ability, or increased chances in group survival.
Our feelings towards robots and other anthropomorphized machines, such as the mechanical doll [i.e. karakuri ningyo], are more a question of psychoanalysis– the question should not be centred around how we should treat robots, but rather why we create emotional attachments to them– making this an ethically prudential question, rather than something requiring a morally-universal insight. the entire article is here
As I’d said, it’s interesting reading. There’s a bit of an anti-roboethics skewer at the end of it, but it’s food for thought nonetheless…
+ Further proof that 4woods are toiling 28 hours a day to produce endless variations of rubbery ladies: they’ve not only released yet another stunning new head in the form of Hatsuki, but they’ve also upgraded their already-popular A.I.NEO line to what’s now known as A.I.NEO im. That’s pronounced ‘im‘, as in ‘I’m going to need a second job just so I can purchase more of these Dolls, cos frankly, this is getting out of hand’.
‘And when I woke up, my pillow really was gone’
What makes this sexy silicone sexpot sexier than their last sexy silicone sexpot? Err, in a nutshell: more detailed body design, better hip joints, expanded range of motion, finger articulation, seven different nipple colours, and three different areola sizes. Not only that, the new body can use pretty much all the heads they sell, and the Hatsuki head can use all four bodies. Now, more than ever, you are spoilt for choice.
O, and what’s that whole ‘im’ bit about, you axe? According to their site, “im” means “impact”, “imagination” “impression” and “impulse”. Sure, why not?
+ And finally, remember how last month it was my sad duty to report that Lovable Dolls are no more? Well, it appears that they’re back — in pog form!! No wait, that’s not right. A fledgling company is now utilising Matt Krivicke’s sculpting talents, bearing a name that Sidore and I definitely approve of — Sinthetics.
Nice day for being affictitious
As this news is roughly a day old, it technically qualifies as a ‘scoop’, but they knew I’d get the word out. ‘Extry extry’, etc. As a consquence, that’s really all the details on the company I can provide, but as I’m prone to say, when I know more, you lot will as well, so try to restrain yourselves until further notice. I mean, I’m doing what I can. *grinds teeth* I should mention that one of their Dolls made her debut on the ‘Josie is a Doll‘ episode of the latest cable reality (in quotes) show, ‘Married to Rock‘ this past Sunday, and she looked very appealing…
In the meantime, why not keep an eye on their site, which is now linked in the usual place in ‘Shouting etc etc’s sidebar?
Now you are informed! And I managed to post this before the end of November! And on the 23rd, yet! Everyone’s a winner
typed for your pleasure on 3 November 2010, at 11.17 pm
Sdtrk: ‘Valley of mist’, from the Otogi 2 OST
Hey Kids! Just a wee heads-up: if you’re fluent in Dutch, or if you’ve downloaded the Dutch language programme for your neural implants, you can peruse a new interview I’d done for the online womens’ magazine VrouwOnline, entitled ‘Een Realdoll kan niet vreemdgaan‘ (‘A Realdoll can’t cheat’). Admittedly, it’s a bit of a puff piece, with not a single link to neither my or Shi-chan’s Internet endeavours, unfortunately. At least they touched upon the fact that I’m not just attracted to Dolls, but that a Gynoid would be my ideal partner, which is something a lot of writers fail to address. As you’re well aware, I’m not simply pro-Doll, I’m pro-Synthetik! You’d think I’d have hammered this point home by now, but it seems quite a few journalists have… no homes to, ah, hammer. Erm.
Bizarrely enough, the writer, Rebecca Have, seemed baffled into paralysis by my name; thinking ‘cat’ was my family name — in lower case, yet — she arbitrarily changed it to Dave, even after I was given the rare and generous opportunity to look over the article and correct any factual errors before it went to press. ‘Davecat isn’t a first name in the Netherlands,’ she professed, in one of the volley of Emails we were sending back and forth to each other about this non-issue. If Ms Have had been asking Morrissey questions, would she report his first name as being Morris? Granted, Morrissey is his family name, but still — utterly boggling.
At any rate, yes; give the article a look-in. Run it through your favourite online translation programme, for further Tower of Babel-styled humour! Plus, ‘vrouw’ is quite a nice-sounding word, innit? It’s Dutch for ‘woman’ or ‘female’ apparently. Say it with me! Vrouuuuuuuuuuuuuw
typed for your pleasure on 31 October 2010, at 8.51 pm
Sdtrk: ‘The station’ by Blank dogs
Funny how things work out sometimes: I was cursing photographer Tamar Levine out loud for seemingly dropping the ball on what was to be a promising photo series, ‘Broken Robot Girl‘, as I’d run across the first in the set whilst checking a link. In hitting Mr Levine’s site to find a functioning link, I’d seen that he and his partner-in-Photoshop Rob Sheridan completed ‘Broken Robot Girl #4‘ back in August!
Better get that arm seen to, babe
You’ll definitely want to visit Tamar’s site, as the complete photograph is worth viewing in its entirety; plus Gynoid jubbleys involved. He says that numbers 2 and 3 in the series are forthcoming, so we’ll just have to keep an eye on that site now, won’t we?
And another online magazine interrogated me on my Doll husband status recently: upon the suggestion of Abyss creations’ Matt McMullen, writer Natalie O’Neill sent an enquiry to me a few weeks ago, wanting to write an article about Shi-chan and I for Asylum magazine. As I’d never heard of Asylum, I’d checked it out, and it struck me as being a ‘lads mag’ much like Stuff, FHM, and Maxim. Now I don’t mind Stuff or Maxim — FHM strikes me as their poorer cousin — but doubts crossed my mind as to how serious they’d approach the subject. Maxim UK actually did an article centred round a RealDollback in December of 2004, and although it was amusing, it took the piss a bit, which is what you’d expect from Maxim. Natalie reassured me that what she would be writing wouldn’t be derisive, and sent me a link to another story she’d written for a newspaper. It was about ‘unusual’ lifestyles, but she approached it with intelligence, so I decided ‘why the hell not?’
The end result? ‘Man Has $6,500 Love Doll “Reincarnated”‘. It was a pretty even-handed article, all told, although personally Sidore-chan nor I would ever say she was reincarnated; we prefer the term ‘renewed’, as it’s less wanna-be Wiccan and more ‘Logan’s run’…
And I’m in the midst of yet another online interview with a writer from the Netherworld. Err, I mean, the Netherlands. More info as it arrives!
So there you are! Happy Samhain! Tomorrow I get to raid my local Hallowe’en outlets for BIG TIME BARGAIN SAVINGS!! As the Missus and I like to say, it’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
