I’m unbashed Björk fan, so checking out Robyn covering Hyperballad at last night’s Polar Music Prize show in Stockholm was essential. Oh, the pressure when Herself is front and centre. Check out her outfit from top to toe!
This years, the Polars recognised Björk and Ennio Morricone for their contribution to music. Past recipents of the prize include Sir Paul McCartney, Quincy Jones and Sonny Rollins. Anyways, enjoy!
We’re pleased to say we’re back on an operating capacity again. 
Star Trek 2 to be like The Dark Knight?
Sweet as sugar.
Summer cupcake love!
I was looking forward to Nom-Con all week and with press pass in hand, I trundled through the double doors to Ireland’s newest anime convention. One of the first things I noticed was that over 80% of the attendees at Nom-Con came decked out in their finest cosplay gear. I caught sight of characters from Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Ouran Host Club, Dante from Devil May Cry, Peter White from Alice In The Country of Hearts (with an over-sized pocket watch) and of course Naruto and Lolita fashionistas. Everyone took pictures of each other’s cosplay outfits, it was great to see and feel a community spirit of like-minded fans.
The Trade Hall was doing impressive business too with attending companies such as Beez Entertainment, Zen Pop and Genki Gear just to name a few. I picked up the second volume of the manga Alice In The Country of Hearts for €8 and the entire season of Cowboy Bebop for an impressively cheap €30 price-tag. The Trade Hall was filled with people throughout the day, when I asked traders they said ‘Business was okay.’ This is a slight understatement as people were laden down and clutching onto their purchases.
(l-r) Claire Thompson, Autumn McCullogh and Emma O’Neill cosplaying as members of Ouran High School Host Club.
I called down to the anime screening room and managed to catch 20 minutes of Trigun and fell in love with the series. It’s been on my list for some time but I never got around to watching it. Vash the Stampede and co. has been bumped up in line for purchasing and I’ll end up with a fatal case of the lol’s. I managed to catch another series called Angel Beats! which left me confused and bemused about it.
Ducking out from Angel Beats!, I managed to catch the Zen Pop Panel about publishing comics and breaking into the industry. I was surprised to find that at least one of their members create their comics all by hand with no digital editing or rendering software whatsoever and that another member of the group is to sit her Leaving Certificate next year.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s line-up at Nom-Con with Lolier Than Thou, a gameshow-esque to find the biggest fan of Lolita fashion at Nom-Con this year and of course the gaming and anime screenings running all day.
Sharon Nolan as Charmander, everyone’s fave Pokémon.
Delayed LB today, the interwebs is having a hissy fit.
Marvel characters as Mega Man stars.
Internships are everything, breaking into the game industry.
Karate Kid 2 is getting new writers.
Witty Twitter two-timing. *Love it*
Public libraries are too easy to ignore.
The video coffee table.
I’m working my way through the comic books of The Walking Dead. So I’m keeping my thoughts on this quiet until I’ve finished the series. So far it looks like the TV series is loyal to the comics.
The human Street Fighter beat-box.
Comic book hero Frank Miller to direct a Gucci ad.
Two posters from Final Fantasy XIV.
It’s very sad news here at ITM Towers to hear that promenient anime director, writer and animator Satoshi Kon passed away yesterday at the age of 46. The interwebs is spreading this unfortunate news quickly, first broken by a tweet from Yasuhiro Takeda from animation studio Gainax.
Kon’s directorial debut was with the anime Perfect Blue, an action filled thriller questioning the main character’s grounding in reality. He later worked on Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent and was the writer and director of Paprika. The works of Satoshi Kon were some of the few that broke into the mainstream. Each production he worked was a breath of fresh air and innovative in it’s own right. Even if you couldn’t understand the underlying complexities, it looked pretty and had a re-watchable quality. His latest creation The Dream Machine is currently in production by Studio Madhouse; I presume this feature length film will go ahead.
It’s a sad day for anime.
Update: Madhouse officially confirmed the news. Satoshi Kon’s wife thanked everyone for their support. He passed away due to pancreatic cancer.
Untouched image of Jen Aniston.
Buying preowned games ‘cheats’ developers.
A sequel for Avatar? Ambitious!
Via Emerging Writer, workshops at the Irish Writers’ Centre.
We’re looking forward to Nom-Con, a brand new Irish Anime Convention kicking off in Dublin this Friday for a whole weekend. It’s taking place at the D4 Hotels Ballsbridge Inn and Towers just off Pembroke Road. There’s all day anime screenings, an artists’ alley, a Pokémon Tournament, cosplaying, serious gaming and a maid and butler café and that’s only tidbits of what’s on offer. If you’re heading along to this, expect to be entertained into the wee hours of the morning with an anime murder mystery and other creative things.
A weekend ticket costs €35 and a day pass will set you back €20. We’ve managed to wrangle a media pass for this event and we’ll report to you what we make of Nom-Con throughout the weekend.