All in でしょう.

I don't have a daemon, I have Tux!

But in the world of The Golden Compass, it's rather a different story.

今日の漢字：スーパーサイズ

太	音読み: タイ, タ 訓読み: ふと.い, ふと.る 名乗り: おお, たか, ひろ Meanings: plump;  thick;  big around  Strokes: 4 ; Skip # 2-3-1

We've had a Netflix copy of Super Size Me sitting around for almost a week while I watched Samurai Champloo and California Split. We're finally getting to it tonight. As Morgan Spurlock ran down the menu he was eating over the first week, I got onto the Weight Watchers website to see how many points he was eating. Until I get back below 160 pounds、I get 22 points a day; that translates to about 1300 calories. Because WW has a pretty draconian set of lawyers protecting their point system, I probably shouldn't say more than that except that the McDogfood's "Big Breakfast" weighs in at 29 points.

As gawd is my witness, I will never go for the McGriddle again.

Compounds and  Definitions

• 太る(P); 肥る 【ふとる】  (v5r,vi) to grow fat (stout, plump); to become fat
• 骨太 【ほねぶと】  (adj-na,n) big-boned; stout
• 太り肉 【ふとりじし】  (n) corpulent; fat; chubby
• 図太い 【ずぶとい】  (adj) bold; shameless; cheeky
• 肉太 【にくぶと】  (adj-na,n) boldface (type)
• 太もも(P); 太股; 太腿 【ふともも(P); フトモモ】  (n) (1) thigh; (2) (col) buttocks; arse; ass; butt
• 着太り 【きぶとり】  (n,vs) (clothes which) make one look fat
• 太巻 【ふとまき】  (n) {food} large roll sushi

(Readings and definitions from Jim Breen's WWWJDIC.)

今日の漢字: Shock and awe

驚	音読み: キョウ 訓読み: おどろ.く おどろ.かす 名乗り: n/a Meanings: wonder; be surprised; frightened; amazed Strokes: 22; Skip # 2-12-10

There's a sequence early in David Levein & Brian Koppelman's screenplay for ラウンダーズ (Rounders) that didn't make it into the finished film. Two side characters, Kenny and Irving, are in the big game with Mike D (before Teddy sits down). On the river, Irving bets out $8,000 and

KENNY

Call, Irv. Take a suck on these babies--the brass Brazilians.

Kenny turns over a pair of aces.

Aside from being a moment without a principal character, I'd bet the term "brass Brazilians" was silly enough to have made the producers cut that moment. The Japanese translation avoided the Spillainesque slang.

ケニー

コール、アーヴ。見て驚くなよ。最高の手だ。

(Call, Irv. A sight to see, ain't they. I got the nuts.)

ケニーが手の内にあった２枚のエースを見せる。

(Kenny shows two aces in his hand.)

I chose to translate 見て驚くな as "something to see/behold" because I read it as emphasizing the adjective. On the other hand, I believe 驚く見ろう would be a good translation for "Read 'em and weep." If I'm wrong, it's because I'm working hard to gain the Japanese skills of a Kansai third grader. Please feel free to comment with corrections or counterarguments!

Meanwhile, I certainly got a pleasant surprise (驚喜) last night when I was invited to see composer/conductor Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at the Bowery Poetry Club tonight. The Bowery has a small stage, barely twice the size of my bathroom, so I really, really didn't think that they'd manage to fit a 19-piece band onto the platform. But by seating the horn sections in waves during setup, they just managed. And the sound that tightly-packed bunch made could fill the East Village.

The first two compositions, "Ritual" and "Phobos," sounded a lot like Frank Zappa and Lalo Schiffrin, with some Andy Summers influence to the guitar parts. But soon, I stopped listening for influences and just let the "little big band" drag me along for the ride. (That included a piece called "Transit" inspired by the Fung Wah Boston<->Chinatown bus written "before it was gentrified.") Argue's fun to watch, too. His band bears no resemblance to Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, but when the tempo gets up, he starts to bounce and skank as he conducts. Rae Bob says go see if you're in New York or Boston. In the meantime, check out the Secret Society audio archive to download the songs as they were played at previous shows.

So, with twenty-two strokes of the brush, this blog moves from occasional poker discussion to a daily kanji exploration (but not forgetting the occasional poker discussion). Like it says above, six thousand miles (to Osaka) begins with a single step. Surprise!

Compounds

• 吃驚(P); 喫驚 【びっくり(P); ビックリ; きっきょう】 (adv,n,vs) (uk) surprise; amazement; fright; astonishment; (P)

  Note that 驚 is the second character in "bikkuri," which must be one of the top 200 words used in anime. "Bikkuri shimashita" generally means "You startled me" or "I was frightened."
  
  What amazes me is that ~くり is not a reading given for 驚, nor is びく or びつ a reading for 吃 (キツ, ども.る,  stammer). It's one of those things you just have to learn, and provides a good reason why びっくり is usually seen in kana.

• 吃驚仰天 （びっくりぎょうてん） (n,vs) astonished; stunned; startled out of one's wits; thunderstruck; open-eyed astonishment
• 世人を驚かす 【せじんをおどろかす】  (exp) to strike terror in peoples hearts
• 驚くべき 【おどろくべき】  (exp) astonishing; amazing; surprising; wonderful
• 驚倒 【きょうとう】  (n,vs) sensational
• 驚異 【きょうい】  (n) wonder; miracle; (P)

(Readings and definitions from Jim Breen's WWWJDIC.)

Saints preserve UK

I am a person of faith. By that I mean that I maintain my faith in the best of the human race despite the abuses of an unjustly large number of slavering dogs, often of war, who claim to speak in the name of Him on High (capitalization theirs). Faith has little to do with religion and nothing to do with being a slave to one. Still, that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a few truly faith-based religious touches in entertainment.

Watching Joan of Arcadia jump the shark last week--adding special effects and a devilish new "adversary" with his own incidental sounds and wind machine, apparently in an attempt to avoid cancellation by turning into a Buffy clone--was particularly painful. A show that had been a true examination of faith in people as well as the metaphysical now threatens to pander to the rapturists and reduce its story arc to the level of Smallville. Thank goodness for Millions.