My Runny Nose and Other Items of Interest

After attempting to go see Oliver Sacks: "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain" at the Central Library, only to find out it was full, I got stuck in a downpour on my way back to the bus stop. I am a little sniffly today, but holding up well. I stopped by the Pharmaca Intagrative for some vitamin love. I had to steer the woman away from the $21 wellness vitamins (I already take daily vitamins, I don't need any more of those), so she helped me settle on some Wellness Fizzies instead (only $7, what a steal!). Of course, this alternative is not as likely to keep me well, she told me...

In other news, my sister has been making friends in Nevada. Not the right kind of friends though. Turns out he was flim-flamming everyone. Maybe gambling should be illegal everywhere. Funny he should make friends with a new lawyer who wants to be a prosecutor.

I am reading a very cool article in Wired's November issue on the history of manga. I would link it, but it is so new it isn't online yet. I guess they have to give people some incentive to buy the magazine. It is by Jason Thompson author of Manga: the Complete Guide and The Stiff. The art is by Atsuhisa Okura who is an artist/illustrator and co-author of books on sudoku and manga. I wish I could have found more info on him, but he isn't in Wikipedia or any other online resource that I could find. There is a ton of info out there on Jason Thompson, though.

The article is fun and written in manga style, with big eyed characters and bound on the right, rather than on the left. I found it interesting how we Americans had to be eased into reading Manga in the traditional left to right fashion before manga could really make it big in the US. I learned about Shojo (girl) Shonen (boy) and Seinen (men/explicit) manga; divisions I never really got before--I know, I just wasn't applying myself. There is a lovely depiction of Pikachu glutting himself and getting milked to show how lucrative the Pokeman manga, anime and collectibles became in the US. All of The Boy's favorite characters are in the article: Naruto, Dragonball Z. And one I remember from my (different than above) sister's fan art: Sailor Moon. Manga infiltrates my life even though I don't usually read it myself.

Hoping to see Ursula K. Le Guin while she is in town. Wish me better luck than last night...

Some of the article information was updated, because I can't seem to read yellow text...