MOVIE REVIEW . The Ghost (aka: Ryeong)

The state of the contemporary Asian horror film is something like that of 80’s slasher these days. Following some truly brilliant entries (Ringu, A Tale of Two Sisters), the market has become saturated sub-par me-too ghost tales of stringy wet haired grudge holding females attacking unsuspecting members of the living (Ghost Train).
Given this climate, to [...]

Tales from Earthsea — guest movie review

Long ago, dragons and humans lived in harmony. Then the desire for material wealth led the humans to inhabit the earth and sea, and the dragons stuck with fire and air. This is the backdrop for the newest feature from Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies), Tales From [...]

Daiso Japan is right here in Mountain View, Ichiban Kan goes online

Yah, I’m a little late announcing it, but yah it opened a little late because they wanted the Grand Opening to be “just perfect”. What’s with Japanese and detailed perfectionism anyways? Ruins my life! Just kidding. Anyway, Daiso is a store packed with tons of cutesie utilitarian items from Japan and [...]

CONTEST . Witchblade Collectors Box + DVD Vol 1

So Funimation has been kind enough to give us two Witchblade Collectors’s Box + DVD Vol. 1 sets to give away. Can you say “awesome”? The set includes the first DVD of the Anime series, a soundtrack cd, and of course, the shiny box itself.

The DVD contains episodes 1- 4 along with the following extras:
A [...]

New Naruto games for Wii and DS

So this one is for you folks who actually dig Naruto. I’ve still not made it through a full episode of the show, so I’ve no real knowledge of these games, but heck, they’re Wii and DS games. The former even looks to play like the old Sega Dreamcast great, Power Stone. Below are press [...]

Stuffed Bell Peppers — homecooking — recipe

This was the “Inadvertent Lycopene Dinner” with Stuffed Red Bell Peppers and Strawberry Shortcake. I have no idea how you’re “supposed” to make stuffed peppers ‘cos I’ve never researched a recipe, but my way is verrry simple.. I just make some fluffy Spanish rice (simmered in veggie stock), stir in some paper-thinly sliced carrots, [...]

Sam and Max Season 1 videogame review

As I’ve stated before, I don’t usually write about video or computer games, but I’ve found another that I have to say something about. You see, I was a huge adventure game enthusiast back in the day, and Sam and Max Hit the Road is easily one of my favorite adventure games of all time. [...]

Yahoo! News . New Yahoo! news video

I know that post title is ridiculous, but I’m too sleepy to care.
Here’s a video clip that ran on the local CBS channel proclaiming our cool little launch. My boss, Larry Cornett (VP of Search UED) is featured uncharacteristically buttoned-down and pressed. Aww, so cute~! ;)
Also featured is my neighbor in the [...]

Yahoo! News . New Yahoo!

Do you Yahoo? You may want to see what we’ve launched last night (click on the image below to try it out yourself). It’s come a long way since the first-ish pass.
I love that a search for “dreamlogic” brings up “wife+chris” on the first Search Assist drop-down panel. The subsequent panel (shown [...]

Trailer for Ryuhei Kitamura/Clive Barker project, Midnight Meat Train

Kris and I are big fans of Clive Barker. In fact, we actually met over a mutual love of Hellraiser (part 2, to be exact). Kitamura, on the other hand, we have a mutual ambivalence towards. The guy makes pretty pictures, but for the most part, he puts us to sleep. Still, there’s no denying [...]

University of CA Press’s Dirt Cheap Book Sale

It’s exactly as the title suggests. Huge discounts on books published by UC Press. There’s a lot here, from history to film to science, all at discounts of up to 40% off. Check it out here.

Calvin Klein and his “logical stuffed transparent box of models”

A couple of days ago, there was some promo for Yahoo! oneSearch linked to Fashion Week 2007. Obviously, I don’t follow fashion, so I immediately thought they meant São Paulo Fashion Week (don’t ask me why I knew that one over the one in New York).
I decided to do a quick search [...]

World Series of Pop Culture’s Juggernaut Game

VH1 just sent us a link to their World Series of Pop Culture game, the Juggernaut. Now Kris and I love hard quiz shows (we watch Jeopardy near nightly. None of that Deal or No Deal for Us), and this game seems suitably hard. I’ll skip a lengthy introduction and just let you check out [...]

Persona 3 (aka: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3) — videogame review

I don’t usually do videogame reviews, but Persona 3 has prompted me to do so. Simply put, Persona 3 rocks. I’ve now lost three weekends to the game, and the outlooks for forthcoming weekends are looking similar for the foreseeable future. This hasn’t happened in years. It’s easily the best, quirkiest, most interesting, and most [...]

Site Update and Upcoming Reviews

So things have been pretty busy the past couple weeks, and the reviews have been a little slow in coming. This past weekend resulted in a much needed relaxation. We have a bunch of stuff in the cooker though, including reviews for The Shoe Fairy, O-oku, Udon, Noriko’s Dinner Table, and more. I still hope [...]

Yahoo! News . Customers happier with Yahoo! over Google

The Search Engine world is fickle with customer quality assurance and innovation at its pinnacle. Nothing beats being smack in the heart of innovation valley.. you can just feel the creative energy and smell the brains brewing! This proves that the world needs designers!
Is Google Inc. losing its edge?
The search engine [...]

Hero or Zero? Barry Bonds

Ironically, a New Yorker who was just in SF on a one-day layover wound up with Barry Bonds’ record-breaking homer baseball #756. Heckled for his Yankees jersey and hat, Matt Murphy held his own in the battle for the prized ball, which left him with ripped clothing and a couple of knocks to the [...]

Frank Gehry Napa Valley groundbreaking today

A new six building 110,000 square-foot Napa Valley winery which celebrated architect Frank Gehry designed for Craig and Kathryn Hall is having its official groundbreaking ceremony today. Unconventionally, the groundbreaking is taking place after initial construction has already begun. Mrs. Hall, the former U.S. ambassador to Austria, is a known avid art collector [...]