They got it right the first time.

A live-action Akira? I'll avoid the unnecessary "why's?" and just shake my head in disdain. Even if James Franco is on board, it seems pointless. What could the adaptation do that the anime already didn't? Precisely what made the anime so compelling was that it was a "cartoon" doing things that cartoons don't do. Shoot, things that most movies don't do. I should probably contextualize those last two statements by clarifying that I first saw Akira at about 13 years of age. Around that time, I was watching the likes of The Nutty Professor and Space Jam. So then I see this animated Japanese movie that's completely alien in every way possible: it's subtitled, the story is difficult to follow and...christ, was that a cartoon boob? Basically, it was some next-level sci-fi shit and completely blew my mind as a kid because it was so different. But now that anime is all the rage in America (for the last decade or so), undiscerning nerds will gobble up anything big eyes and dumb hair, regardless of how banal or ludicrous the story and/or art is. Akira was, and still is, great because you can see the meticulous care that went into every detail of each frame. No way that same level of care will go into the adaptation.

I finally watched Inception, making me the last person on the planet to do so. Totally got it. Don't even need to ask me about it. (He's still in his dream, right?)

Some words on The Human Stain. Protagonist, Colman Silk, is a light-skinned black man. A professor of classics. Light enough complexion to pass for white in most cases. During youth, decides to disown his black family to create white identity; wife and children never know. Later in his 70's, has an affair with an apparently illiterate white janitor in her 30's from the university he had previously been employed at (got fired for inadvertent racism in using the word "spooks" to refer to habitually absent students he didn't know were black). Desire in the opposite. Power in secrecy. Binaries broken internally and externally. Oh the tragedy of human contradiction.

Just finished The Hunger Games. Not bad. It's clear that the author, Suzanne Collins (who used to work on that old Nickelodeon show, Clarissa Explains It All), is familiar with the likes of The Running Man and Battle Royal. There were even a couple of scenes in the book that reminded me of parts from both Predator and Rambo: First Blood Part II, with the violence toned down a bit. After reading so many novels steeped in textual ambiguity, it's nice to pick up a story that essentially tells itself. That being said, it's no Feed.

I really want to go to Rain Fest. Not only is it in Seattle this year (Neumo's), but the lineup is insane: Black Breath, Owen Hart, Shook Ones, Most Precious Blood, 7 Seconds, Madball, and Trial...to name a few. Oh wait, it's already sold out. Fantastic.