I just received my copy of [[amazon:B00007KL30 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]], which I got off eBay for $11 in total. A pretty good deal, although somehow paying $5.00 for shipping and handling hurts more than the incredibly cheap $6.00 disc helps. Oh well.

After watching the first episode of the TV series, I was blown away by the title music, which is track 11 on this disc. I then began a hunt to find this CD, and fortunately found a fan site that gives decent mp3 samples. I think I really like the composer’s style, Yoko Kanno is very talented. I think I’ll be picking up some of her many other anime soundtrack titles soon.

Soundtracks can be a strange listening experience, as they often closely tie-in to the plot, and even specific scenes. Kanno seems to use any style and instrumentation that she pleases, and she masters most of them. It can vary from driving rock, to techno, to ethnic, to light jazz, to space/dream, sometimes even in the same song! It is hard to single out exemplary tracks, they are all quite good.

Fish ~ Silent Cruise opens with a beautiful boy’s non-lyrical singing, but a hard cut happens (probably worked well for the tv edit), and the whole song sshifts gears. Several performers appear in multiple tracks, most impressive is Gabriela Robins great three songs. The best track has to be Inner Universe, the TV show’s title music and the reason I bought the whole album. It is frenetic in its techno parts, and hauntingly beautiful in others. I absolutely love it.

This isn’t an album for everyone. It definitely connects with the television series, so fans are the obvious audience here. But anyone who likes eclectic mood music, or “japaphiles” will probably enjoy the listen.

Finally got my butt into the North Carolina Driver’s License Agency today. I’ve never heard of a state that doesn’t have a combined DMV. In a way I think its great, I won’t be stuck in line behind a guy trying to register his old jalopy. But this was far from a smoothly running operation…

I got there before 9, and the nazi at the front desk gives me grief over my social security card not exactly matching my CA driver’s license. Then she tells me I need proof of residency, but I can’t use my proof of insurance card which has my address. Errr, ok. Fortunately I was low on cash, so I had brought my checkbook which had my address. Then I waited 20 minutes to get to the window to actually start the proces.

I had to pass a vision test, as well as a sign test, using one of those vision testing machines. I hate those things, as they never quite get the focal lengths correct so it is an unnatural feeling. Then I took the written test, on a computer at least. The trouble is, once your done, you have to wait for the person who you first spoke with to become available. Seriously, this took like 30 minutes at least, as he was helping some older gentleman who took forever.

On the flip side, and unlike California, I got my license right there on the spot. This is how Delaware used to be, so now I’ve got my NC license. Woot, I suppose.

Anyway, the whole thing made me about 2 hour late to work, and I couldn’t call work to inform them of this as the DMV prohibits cel phone calls, and then my battery died. Sheesh, what a comedy.

When I got home from work, I had received some more Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex CDs from Damian. I tried to ration these episodes out, but I’ve only left myself two of the 6 or so he sent. Dang, they are good. I wish the soundtrack I got on eBay would get here already!

In other car related news, I’ve got ≈950 miles on my car, so I’ve started driving harder. I was supposed to wait till 1000, but I’ll be there by tomorrow. I doubt the day will really make that much of a difference. I did a few bad shifts on the way home, pushing in the cluth before letting go of the accelerator can really snap your neck. Oh well, I’ll get the hang of it. I’m still trying to find the right shift points, and using higher RPMs changes evertying all over.

Just got back from a nice dinner with Stormi, Todd, and Corinne, at this Tapas restaurant on 9th Street in Durham. This was my recommendation and I think it went over pretty well. I had some really good chicken, and the others split at least 7 tapas. The only complaint would have to be the service, the poor waiter was bit slow, both in libation delivery and verbal processing. Oh well.

Last night Cass treated Stormi, Todd, and I to dinner at The Latern in Chapel Hill. It is a nice asian fusion place, and I think we all had a good meal. It was a bit of an ordeal to arrive there however. Corinne had a friend coming from Charlotte to visit, who ended up running quite a bit late. So I went over to Cass’s to pick up Corinne, but then she wanted to wait for her friend. Not to harp on this too much, as I don’t really fault Corinne here, but I ended up going on my own after a nice 20 minute jaunt in the wrong direction. Then I missed my turn exit, and got stuck in some seriously cruddy traffic (bay area style, u no wut im sayin?).

It all worked however, and afterwards Cass went home, Corinne and her friend arrived, and we went to The Cave on the a stranger’s recommendation. The Cave is one of those hole-in-the-wall bar/hangouts, complete with no venilation and local garage band. We didn’t stay that long, but it was fun to do that sort of things again. It had been quite a while.

Today Tim, Todd, Stormi, and I visited Exploris, a cultural exploration museum. This was a bit of a shock however, as I thought it was a science museum. I think all in attendance agreed that the offering was fairly poor, the thing that I found most interesting was the architecture. Included in the admission was an IMAX movie, which did turn out pretty well. We saw a documentary on extreme sports, which had some breathtaking images of Alaskan mountains, New Mexican buttes, 30 foot Hawaiian waves, and other sights.

Afterwards we went to this cool vintage store. A very eclectic store, furniture, clothing, electronics, lamps, video games, neon signs, vinyl, you name it. Favourite finds: Atari 2600 in box, RadioShack Armitron robotic arm, and Super Pong. Stores like this used to freak me out, all of that old used stuff, all with histories behind them. But perhaps there is enough distance between now and my childhood that I’m more comfortable with the memories these old object dredge up now. shrug

All in all, I had a really nice weekend. I never really knew Stormi or Todd, whom it turns out I really like. Nice people, they is. Maybe I’ll get to know them better someday, should certain events unfold.

My co-worker Tim made an offer on the house next-door to his current rental, which was subsequently accepted. So he seems quite thrilled, which is awesome.

Went to the state fair last night with Corinne, Tim, Stormi, and her husband Todd. I forgot to take my digicam with me, so I could only use my camera phone. Still, check out my moblog to see.

It was a lot of fun, I’d never been to a state fair before, only county ones. It was pretty damn big honestly, I don’t think we covered nearly all of it. It was pretty damn awesome. Rides, fried food, animals, fireworks, demolition derby, tractor pulls, unwinnable games, all that you’d expect from a good fair. It was a fun group of people to be hanging out with, I had never spent much time with Stormi before, and none with Todd.

In other news, it looks like the house buyer isn’t going to work out. This is a big pain in the ass, as I’m still paying the mortgage out there. We’re two weeks past the scheduled close of escrow, so we’re going back to looking for other buyers now. There’s a good chunk of money in escrow that we are legally entitled to, but will probably have to go to small claims court to get access to it. We did everything we were contractually supposed to, while the buyer messed up a few times. sigh Honestly, this blows.

So now we’re looking at another 3-4 weeks till we could close. Mark said he showed the house to two couples, both showed interest. As he showed them, this will be a slightly debatable relationship, as he is representing both the seller and buyer. How can he serve both interests at once? The benefit is that his commision will be slightly lower, which helps us out some. Anyway, damn.

Turns out the state income tax deduction out of my paycheck doubled from California’s. Effectively it is less, as NC doesn’t have the marriage benefit nor does it have as progressive a tax schedule/rate structure. Dang, this wasn’t supposed to be like this

Just finished up [[imdb:0264616 Frailty]], and I really liked it. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie. I was bracing myself for some a creepy twisted horror flick ala Se7en, but what I ended up with was a good old Hitchcockian suspense film.

This was Bill Paxton’s directorial debut, and he did a great job. He also pulled off a great job as one of the main characters, Dad. The two kids do a bang up job, and the tension between Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe is teriffic.

I really recommend this movie. And, in the style of Hitchcock, there really isn’t all that much blood and gore displayed, mostly just implied. So maybe my mom could even sit through this one. Maybe.