March 31, 2004 Culture ¢ the other press © Check out these latest releases while they’re still warm! Movie: Mayor of the Sunset Strip Release Date: April 2004 Not a rockumentary, not a mockumentary—this one’s an actual documentary. This film looks at the life of Rodney Bingenheimer, the pop impresa- rio and Los Angeles radio per- sonality who helped break bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, Blondie, Nirvana, and the Strokes. The movie features interviews with the likes of David Bowie, Brian Wilson, and Courtney Love. Book: The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty by Peter Schweizer Release Date: April 2004 According to the publisher, this book is an unprecedented account of the American Family's path to enormous wealth and political prominence. Conveniently, it is being released in audio CD format, so even George W. can enjoy it. Album: Convict Pool, Calexico Release Date: April 6, 2004 New EP from Arizona’s Calexico, features five European singles and one previously unreleased track. Be prepared for more the breezy, south-of-the-border, sto- rytelling flavour you already love these boys for. Rumour has it that this latest offering is a “sen- sual record full of life and pas- sion.” Sounds like perfect Spring tunes to me. Nick Hog OP Game Guy V2.0 SaiyukiVolume 8 With the harsh turn Saiyuki took in the last volume, it’s nice to see it can still have some funny and light- hearted episodes. This volume isn’t as plot heavy as the last, but it is still very entertaining with quite a few good laughs to lighten up the mood. It’s nice to see this quick return to light-heartedness, espe- cially since the next four volumes should be fairly plot heavy with the conflict with the War Prince. As always with the newer DVDs, the picture quality is excellent, and like usual T'll make a comment on how this hardly seems worthwhile commenting on. The English audio is presented in a 5.1-channel mix that makes great use of. the rear speaker for direction with voices in certain situations, which greatly enhances the experience. The Japanese voice track is presented in its original 2.0-channel stereo sound, but is still of very high quality. The extras on this disc include the mandated clean opening-and-closing animations along with production sketches. The ever-popular cultural background notes were provided once again, which I always find Anime Laser The weekly focused look into the anime world. What's Hot Right Now: We've got the Robotech Remastered: Extended Edition, which isn’t tech- nically new at all. I mean a lot of us watched this back in the 80s. And we all started buying this on DVD again two years ago to boot. But lo and behold, they have finally released versions that are fixed. Yes, that’s right, Robotech without the grainy lines, a picture that doesn’t make your eyes hurt and 5.1-channel sounds. Too bad they couldn't do anything about the 80s hair while they were remaster- ing those scenes. What’s Going to be Hot: Get Backers details the trials of a team of specials who steal back stolen goods. I guess that’s what they call them in Japan, but in North America we just call them repo men. Ikkitousen, or Power of a thousand as it translates into English, will be upcoming and should be fairly. pop- ular for the following reasons: fight- ing, more fighting, women with big boobs, Chinese history, street fight- ing, lesbians, a sack of hammers, and lesbians fighting. Hmm, it seems to have a very common recurring theme to it. I think it’s the sack of hammers, so if you like sacks of hammers this is the series for you. What's Hot in Japan: extremely useful. They fill in the history about the original Saiyuki novel, or Journey to the West, as we would call it n English. And finally included in the extras, is a trailer for Saiyuki, now this is an extra that you need to list on the back of the box. It’s volume 8 of 12—who wouldn't want to see a trailer for a series you've already bought seven volumes for? It seems some companies really don't know what counts as an extra these days. I mentioned earlier that there was a return to the funnier plots, well it is half true—two of the episodes are light-hearted and funny, the other two are fairly dark, and we only get one real episode that advances the main story arc. As for the funny episode, it’s a return in two ways. One, it’s funny like earlier volume’s episodes, and two, it features the return of the imposter Sanzo party. The episode follows the imposters as they try to get back at the Sanzo party for their last encounter, and despite the fact that the same end- ing gag is used it never seemed tired or old at any point in the episode. It’s odd but there is an episode that spends a great deal of time back- grounding two new characters only to have them bite the dust by the Well, I know I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but Fullmetal Alchemist has reached the super saturation point of popularity. Apparently it’s taken this year’s award for “Title No One Shuts Up end of the episode. And it’s not like they weren't interesting characters either, I’m not really sure what to comment on, they had to have been the most well developed, short-lived characters ever. But getting back to the main story arc, we have the one Saiyuki Volume 8 episode of the disc involving Hommura, and the Sanzo party. Now what I find odd is for a guy who wants the Sanzo party dead he sure likes to let them live quite a bit. Although this fact gives us a look into Hommera’s character, because About.” But I do have to say it war- rants the praise and I certainly hope Bandai of Japan hurries up and lets Bandai of America buy the licensing rights for it. Robotech Remastered http://www.otherpress.ca one would think if he’s letting the only people that stand in his way from destroying the heavens and earth live, that maybe’ he has second thoughts about his actions. It could also be his past relation- ships with the Sanzo party’s last incarnations. You have to remember both Hommera and the Sanzo party are living by the same philosophy of living for yourself and not following the predetermined, but as with any- thing it makes it interesting when two people, or groups of people, have the same viewpoint but a greatly different execution. Even though we barely move along plot wise in the main story arc, it was still quite entertaining, and gave us a bit of insight into the whole con- flict dynamic between Hommera and the Sanzo party. The volume didn’t come off as filler, but more as a nice break before the last story arc lets loose. If youre already collecting Saiyuki you really don't have much of a choice in the matter on whether you should get the volume or not. If you haven't seen any of Saiyuki yet, you really should give this series a shot, but I do suggest you start at the beginning. Drse Le ” Get Backers Page 13