Solty Rei is the shit

I ABSOLUTELY AM IN LOVE WITH THIS SERIES. Many of you know that I am nearly 100% against anything that Disney does and hate that America treats animation as if it's for kids only. I'm sick to death of talking animals and fuzzy moralistic nonsense. I've been a fan of Anime ever since I was a kid. I remember watching Astro boy, Marine Boy, Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets (aka Gotchamon) and Star Blazers (the wave motion gun is THE best weapon of all time). I would rather watch these shows than Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry. Why? BECAUSE THEY HAD PEOPLE doing really cool PEOPLE things. I've never been the biggest Manga fan tho. I really do prefer American comics. Even though American comics have so many of their own issues. I don't know where to start. It's obsession with super heroes is just way too limiting. But I feel the artwork in American comics are... well... just better. And more diverse. ANYWAY, I digress.... ANIME has always been a source of inspiration simply because the Japanese deal with characters and themes in comics/Anime that are just wicked cool. Solty Rei reminds me a lot of Trigun mixed with Leon The Professional. This mix of extreme innocence and maturity represented by the two main characters is very effective. Your first impression may be to write it off. Admittedly the animation is not Ghost in the Shell or Animatrix standards. It's not even Samurai Shamploo, and once you get past that, you have to deal with Solty herself. I can see how most people will scratch their heads and ask, "What the hell IS this?" but if you stick with it for a few episodes.... It's absolutely infectious. Because Solty's innocence is so disarming you immediately write it off as a kids show, and that's exactly what they want you to do. Because this show is as Cyber Punk as they come.

Right or Left brain

click here and find out which are YOU?

Great iPhone skit

Sadly, It didn't air on SNL.

Death of a diner

A little over a week ago the humble little ad agency that I work for decided to lay off about 15 people (of a staff of @ 70). It wasn't so surprising, we had lost a few key accounts but I couldn't help but feel a little freaked out due to my experience over the "dot com" days. The days when they lined us up by the hundreds gave us a fond farewell and returned to our desks to learn that we were locked out of our machines; often with our belongings already kindly packed in boxes. So, needless to say, I kicked it into high gear and started covering my ass by handing out the resumes. By the end of the week I started to relax, knowing that I was proactive in taking fate into my own hands, and decided to visit my good good friend The Rob in my favorite favorite place Philadelphia.

This is The Rob:



The Rob just learned that is is going to be a daddy and I wanted to come down from the Lawn of Brook and drink some nice nice wine. I have much love for the illadelph and the minute I got off the train I felt like my old self. All the places I use to hang out at came flooding back into me bean and The Rob is always very patient with me while he takes me around to all my favorite old haunts. The minute I got into his car we went out and grabbed a beer at a new neighborhood bar and immediately I'm reminded of why I love this cozy little city. The small streets and brick houses are brimming with neat little eateries just waiting to be discovered. After that, another treat as we went to THE BEST little italian joint in northern liberties called il cantuccio. During our scrumptious meal and with my eyeballs starting to float from the bevy of yummy yummy vino The Rob declares that we must depart or we'd miss The Australian Pink Floyd Show, the only world touring Pink Floyd tribute act. They even played for David Gilmor whom I can only suppose gave them a little pink pig stamp of approval. I was skeptical. wouldn't you be? but they were GREAT! Sounded just like em. I was shocked.








They had it all. Great sound Great light show. In true philly style The Rob and I showed up late to the Tower but got prime seats anyway. As we walked out I was struck by how long it had been since I'd been to the Tower to see a show. Was it Primus with Fishbone when I had the chicken pocks and my friends didn't want to touch me? NO it was Jane's Addiction during the Ritual tour! We were all tripping our balls off and Perry got really pissed that the crowd wasn't getting up off the seats and decided to walk off the stage before the show was over. Of course there was a riot. I remember stumbling out into the street just in time to watch 50 or so people tipping over this huge tour bus while the scene quickly filled with dozens of patrol cars. Lights flashing, Ah the good ol days. The Rob and I headed over to another old place that's trying to make a bit of a revival but we quickly left in lieu of checking out the newly refurbished Silk City. Now, Silk City diner is a STAPLE of philly night life. At least it was in my day. At 2 am there would be about two places you'd go to get some grub before heading out to the Black Banana or Revival (Two long gone after hours clubs). One was the south street diner the other was Silk. When I left the illadelph it was just starting to undergo some huge changes. JC Dobbs turned into the Pontiac Grill. They opened a Johny Rockets on SOUTH STREET (ugh). They were going to close the Troc and micro breweries were popping up EVERYWHERE. ONE thing I thought would NEVER ever change was Silk. But it did. and that makes me feel:



They turned it into another hipster hideaway. no more gravey fries. I ordered a BLT. They now make it with wild boar bacon and fried green tomatoes. It was way too greasy and the neon red lights they have in there now don't make it go down any easier. Next to the diner was something I guess you could call a club. just a tiny dance floor with a little bar. And it was really nice to. They kept the two areas separate from each other. But now it's all one. They blast the muic in the diner now and you can't even hear your friends talk. You use to be able to use the place as a great little club house. A little rest bit where you could rendezvous with all the other philly party people as you chow down quickly on some good old diner food before moving on. You can get Wild boar bacon bits with shee shee crap anywhere. give me back my gravy fries. An era has passed.