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Edge of Tomorrow

I sure enjoyed this. I love me some sci-fi, I love me some mech suits, and I love me some interesting storytelling, and this movie had it all. And I still enjoy watching Tom Cruise in a movie, still think he’s good at what he does – hey, I even liked Oblivion – and thought he was just right for this. I don’t get why it didn’t do better at the the box office, as it’s pretty much the best action movie I’ve watched this year, along with Winter Soldier (yes, I haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet).

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Rayman Fiesta Run

I really liked Rayman Jungle Run – which I think is the most successfully executed platformer on iOS – and I finally got around to playing the sequel, Rayman Fiesta Run (it was on sale for a buck last week), and it’s just as fun, and looks maybe even better. Doing it as a non-stop runner is really the way to do a game like this, and the simple jump and punch controls, by hitting the sides of the screen, work perfectly. Sure, it’s not better than Rayman Origins or Legends, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s a great way to play a Rayman game – with the fantastic art direction you’d expect from the series – on touch devices.

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X-Men: Days of Future Past

Why is it that the X-Men movies have absolutely the worst character designs in the super-hero filmscape – I mean, just awful. I could barely stand looking at the screen anytime Quicksilver was on, even though he is the main part of the only 3 things I liked in this movie: the sequence where he uses his powers and everything goes to slo-mo, the use of Blink’s powers (which show that a Portal movie could be pretty damn cool), and the sequence after the closing credits. First Class was at least more fun to watch.

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Drawing for Life

Adrian Hogan breathes drawing.

Adrian is yet another person I’ve met through PauseTalk – yes, I tend to meet the most interesting people through my PauseTalk series, which is the main reason I started doing it all these years ago.

And he draws. A lot.

Adrian is a freelance illustrator based here in Tokyo, and as you’ll see from his online portfolio, he has a wonderful style that really is adaptable. But the most amazing thing is that Adrian is always drawing. And I mean always. He and Luis Mendo – the other obsessive drawer – are always sketching wherever they are, and following them on Instagram (Adrian/Luis) ensures constant updates on where they are and what they are seeing, by way of pen.

I’m quite happy that the both of them – along with AQ’s Eiko Nagase – run PauseDraw, a PauseTalk spinoff series where instead of talking you, ahem, draw. They’ve been doing it for well over a year now, and it’s really great to see how the event has grown. The regular sessions take place at AQ’s conference room in Nishi-Azabu, but they also have special editions in which they collaborate with Loftwork, that attract quite the crowd.

If you’re interested in taking part, you’ll always find new events listed on the series’ Facebook page (and you can follow them on Twitter). And it’s important to note that you don’t have to have any drawing ability to take part, it’s all about having fun with a pen or pencil and a piece of paper.

Thank you Adrian, Luis, and Eiko, for what you’ve accomplished with PauseDraw. It’s a joy for me to see something like this happen.

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Strike a Pose, There’s Nothing to It

Strike a pose.

Last week – on Saturday, which was the day “Fashion’s Night Out” was held – as we were walking down Omotesando, we were stopped by a group who were taking street shots for Vogue Japan, to be used on the magazine’s website, and possibly other sites.

They of course wanted to shoot my wife and pooch.

Above, you can see the photographer taking a few different shots, and one shot did in fact make it to the Vogue Japan site – I’m not linking to it because my wife is shy, and didn’t want me to share it.

In a funny coincidence, I had met the photographer a couple of years ago, because he had attended one of my PauseTalk events.

Pooch is now Vogue-worthy.

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The Blogger Who Wasn’t There

When is a blogger not a blogger?

I used to blog, a lot. In fact, I turned into a writer because of all that blogging – I had started writing a series of posts about how I got to writing professionally, but those are now unfortunately all gone.

But yeah, blogging, used to do lots, barely do any now – the last post I wrote was at the end of June, and that’s been pretty much par for the course for the last year or so. Sure, the fact that my previous host royally screwed me over and pulled the plug without proper warning had an effect. It took me a while to get over that, and even though I don’t really think about it anymore, I’m sure it has affected how I treat this blog.

The blog that wasn’t there.

It’s different contributing to a blog that has 10+ years of history – a lot of it about the art and culture scene in Tokyo – and contributing to one that just has a few posts on it, none dating back before 2014.

The end of history.

But that’s of course not the only reason I don’t write as much as I used to. I do have a day job that keeps me busy, and so new posts have ground to tiny trickle over the past couple of years or so. This often had me feeling like I should add something to make sure and keep the site alive, since it was so important to me for such a long time – and hey, sometimes I did actually have something I wanted to share. And I do still write quite regularly on my media consumption diary, as I like to keep track of things I’m watching and playing.

So what am I trying to say here? 

I don’t want to lose that habit of writing (for myself) that I developed over all these years, and so I want to try and get back to it.

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Velocity 2X

I liked Velocity Ultra, but wow, Velocity 2X is really something else. The ship sequences are still as fun as ever, but what really stands out are the old school Metroid-like 2D action/platforming sequences, when you’re out of your ship. I like how you go from one to the other throughout a level, and the emphasis on trying to go fast and smoothly through levels is also shared between the two styles of play. Even though I have it both on PS4 and Vita, so far I’ve just been playing on Vita. If you’re a PlayStation Plus member and a Vita owner, it’s been a pretty fantastic month.

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PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

I’m a bit surprised considering I’m not big into fighting games, and that I know this game didn’t do well in general, but I’m actually having a really fun time with it (it’s currently free for Playstation Plus members). I’ve only been playing on Vita so far, but I took Ratchet and just loved going through stages with him, with the wacky shooting moves (with typical Ratchet weaponry), and the stages are cool too. I think it’ll be fun playing this when I have friends over, although I now wish I had 4 PS3 controllers for it. Sure, I’m really looking forward to Smash Bros., but it is pretty fun battling with all of these PlayStation-related characters. 

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Joe Danger

I love the Joe Danger games so much, I’ve played all of them – including the fantastic iOS versions – and I’m still happy to be playing the first one, this time on Vita. It’s still fun, and it does feel really good on Vita. I’m of course so excited for No Man’s Sky, but the fact that it’s the maker of this series making it, even though it’s so different, makes me that much more confident that it will be a fantastic game. 

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TxK

What a fantastic game. Minter’s been releasing psychedelic shooters for what seems like forever, and this is absolutely the best game he’s released as Llamasoft. It looks gorgeous on the Vita screen, and although it takes some time to get used to Tempest controls with a stick or even d-pad (which I prefer), I’m loving it. If you’re a Playstation Plus member, grab this now.