2006-09-18

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Item! In reversal of movie plot, living person becomes terra cotta warrior!

Wendel had come prepared, Xinhua said. [...]

He ... designed himself a gown and hat identical to those once worn by Emperor Qinshihuang's warriors, and even brought a plinth to stand on.

After leaping into the pit, he quickly donned his costume and waited.

Police said it took them two minutes to find the "living terracotta warrior", clad in military garb and staring straight ahead with unblinking eyes.

I swear that the exact same thing happened one time on Inspector Gadget. You can see him in costume courtesy of sina.com. Love the mustache. His "Chinese name" is apparently 马林: literally, "Horse Grove". Yeah, maybe it has some other significance I don't know about. The Chinese term for "terra cotta warriors", perhaps coincidentally, is 兵马俑, which includes the same "horse" character. Little help?

Item! Japanese television commercials display fusion of surrealism and techno-storgeism/agapism/eroticism*. Summary for readers who don't speak Japanese: each commercial features a cute girl claiming to be, literally, the product she is standing beside, and then ends with the tag line "To us, our products look this cute."

I swear that the exact same thing happened one time in Gravity's Rainbow.

* Discussion about representation of teenage girls in the Japanese media goes here. Thanks to Roy for "storge".

Popularity factor: 7

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Leonardo Boiko:

This kind of Moé anthropomorphism has been going on for quite a while on futaba, and even before in otaku culture (remember Chobits?). It was about time for it to reach mainstream.

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Matt:

Oh man, I am slapping my forehead! You're right, it's exactly the same thing except not cartoony.

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Ali:

Looks like being obsessively creative can get you off of a few criminal charges, at least. ;) I bet if he'd had a chance to dust his hands well with clay powder he might've made it more than two minutes...

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amida:

Matt: The Chinese for "Terracotta warriors" just means something like "soldier and horse figures" (or whatever the proper translation for the last character is). Though the "warriors" are more famous, there are horses and other martial stuff too.

I wouldn't make too much out of his Chinese name, either. "Ma" is a common Chinese last name. His name doesn't seem to be transliterated, so maybe it is his attempt at a "proper" Chinese name.

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denske:

Great. Now I want to date a piece of industrial machinery. As if a Catholic upbringing didn't give me enough problems in this area...

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Matt:

Ali: Yeah, I was pretty impressed with the Man's reaction over there. And definitely -- if he'd been able to hide his skin tone, he might still be there.

Amida: Damn, I was hoping you'd handle the last character, the tricky one ;) Is it really only used for "mannequins buried with the dead"?

Denske: Heh. But you know, now that there's a German pope, the Catholics might have softened their stance on marrying industrial machinery.

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Brian:

Speaking of Moe anthropomorphism (may I grow old and die without ever again uttering that phrase), I just came across this oldish post while trying to look up information on the Uncanny Valley.

I guess it's nothing particularly clever, but I can't resist the euphony of "Uncanny Valley and Moe Mountain."

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