Gnarls Barkley - Reckoner.

Now, I generally hate when other bands/musicians cover Radiohead but Gnarls Barkley has a magical voice, the only voice aside from Thom Yorkes that could ever carry a song this big.

Sufjan Stevens - I want to be well.

With Sufjans new album just around the corner [12 october 2010] there were a few leaks as expected. One of those is this incredible giant of a tune - I Want to Be Well. Enjoy.

Spectrum comment of the day ! Vol1.

So I've deciding on including some lols. Here is the first "Comment of the Day" from Spectrum Nexus.

Lecram86 said:

"In fary tail, where it says that Panther Lily likes kiwi, what its refearing to the bird or the fruit? Because Panther is a cat after all. "

You can check out the actual comment by clicking on the username.

Where to read your favourite manga? Well right this way please...

Hey guys, due to the recent manga website bust, it's become really quite hard to find your favourite manga online. Only a handful of small manga websites remain, and these are especially hard to locate.

In my honest opinion, the best place to read your manga is Spectrum Nexus, a small, one-man operated website with a great reader and a fantastic selection of popular titles ranging from Naruto to Berserk and even many Yuri/Yaoi manga, which are usually virtually non-existent within the more popular websites. The best thing about The Spectrum is it's community and disqus comment boards which are full of people ready to recommend a new title to read.

If you want your manga fix really early on, then I suggest following Mangastream on twitter. The website itself, only hosts Binktopia [very high quality, fantastic translation] releases.

A good alternative to Binktopias scans comes from SleepyFans. Sadly SleepyFans does not have a dedicated reader online so their scans have to be downloaded zipped up from their website.

Anyway, here are the links, enjoy !
Spectrum Nexus - Many titles with a thriving community.
MangaStream Twitter - Up to date news regarding Binktopia releases.
MangaStream - Binktopias dedicated manga reader.
SleepyFans Blogspot - Download SleepyFans scanlations.[ Currently the only group scanlating Bakuman]

Dj Shadow - Shadowsphere Tour Footage.

This amazing new footage was taken at the Bucharest gig this year.

Visuals by Ben Stokes.

Summer Wars = Summer Victories.

Remember last year when I talked about "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" by Mamoru Hosoda? Well, Mr Hosoda returns with another anime creation you simply can't afford to miss. Also coming back with Hosoda is the entire Madhouse studio to help him create truly visionary work. What am I talking about? Hosodas second full feature anime film - Summer Wars.






The story of Summer Wars is built around the fusion of two worlds. A Facebook-like social network called OZ, which not only allows people to communicate but also controls most electronic devices hooked up to the web, and the normal world in which humans lead their typical lives. That is, until one day everything goes horribly wrong and OZ gets hacked by a virus. A virus that brings chaos to both worlds.






The main character of Summer Wars, Kenji Koiso, is a mathematical genius who unwillingly gets pulled right into the middle of the entire situation. One day he recieves an Email containing a mathematical equation that only a wiz like him could solve. It turns out the equation was in fact the activation code for the virus. Now, being wanted by police worldwide, him and the upper-class family of his love interest, Natsuki Shinohara, must solve the problem and get rid of the virus before all is lost.






One thing to point out about Summer Wars is the animation, which is simply put, top-notch. I was already in love with what Madhouse Studios work on The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, but with this production they really take it to another plane. The amount of on-screen detail is beyond belief. Some of the end-film shots of the virus are breathtakingly beautiful. Even though the graphics are computer generated for most part of the feature, it still retains the classic anime feel we all know and love. It is truly the best combination of CGI and hand drawn art.






In my humble opinion, Mamoru Hosoda is the man who will take Hayao Miyazakis place atop the throne of japanese animation once Hayao is no longer with us. It is extremely reassuring that this kind of magnificent work still surfaces.



Mamoru Hosoda, I salute thee.



Read Summer Wars manga here.

It seems blogs are like zombies.

Hey everyone. Not that there is anyone here. I've come back. I'm planning on picking sophomore up again. It has been a very long time since I've last written anything on here and this situation demands an explanation. There has been an awful lot of drama in both our lives [a refresher - this blog was run by Jash and Kilimanziaro, two geeks on a mission] and running a blog was basically impossible.

Things seem to have quietened down for now and I'm planning on slowly but surely picking up the blog again.

Yours truly, Kilimanziaro.