There’s been an interesting set of articles over on ICv2.com about anime being sold at large chain stores.

The first post about it was last month with an article about anime at Best Buy. The author felt that this signaled the end of the specialty retailer. This prompted a number of posts from people discussing the issue. In the end what it is really showing is the power of some of these large chain stores.

When a vendor sells a Sailor Moon box set (take your pick) to Best Buy and they RETAIL the $149.99 box set at $98.99 (my local price), I cannot compete with them with a net cost of $93.00.  If I have to offer to sell it the item at a loss (yes, a loss after all carrying costs are attached) then why on earth would I WANT to sell their product.    Pricing a $150.00 SRP item at 98.99 turns the perceived value of that item to $98.99 and makes us look like criminals when we try to charge SRP.  We have to carry most of these type items to maintain an edge in overall selection, but if Mike and/or Media Blasters honestly believes that they could compete in their market under similar circumstances, then they should wake up. [ICv2 Talk Back – Daniel McAbee]

For me this is something that is about more than anime. It’s about supporting smaller local businesses.When I buy my anime from Tokyo Kid in Harvard Square. Yes, they pretty much sell everything at list price, but they also have a selection that blows away just about every chain place. They also have more anime related stuff, an extensive collection of soundtracks, rentals, toys, etc. And they know me when I go in and will suggest things to me based on stuff they know I watch (and they offer me water if I’m coughing a lot that day). In the end they’re usually the first choice for me if I can get in there easily. Here’s hoping they stay in business a long time.

And one last note about places like Best Buy. Their selection is mediocre. I have browsed through their selection a few times and it always seems really spotty to me, like they don’t pay attention when they don’t have all the DVDs for a series. Blah.

So things start up in a bit. I was exhausted last night so I crashed early (or maybe that’s my body just wanting to get on a normal schedule). Went to a get together at the Hong Kong last night for people who were already in town for BloggerCon. Got to meet Adam Curry, which was neat. It’s so weird seeing and meeting some of these people who I’ve read about snippets of things in their lives. And I left early because I had a horrible headache.

I’ll be online from the conference and I’m thinking of turning on my web cam, since I haven’t in a while.

Does anyone out there have a CD of my mix Spring? i can’t seem to find my copy of it and I was looking for someone who had a CD of it that I burnt that I could copy.

Seen over on a friend’s LJ, here’s a link to The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae). From the abstract:

On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) collided with the glass façade of the Natuurmuseum Rotterdam and died. An other drake mallard raped the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. Then the author disturbed the scene and secured the dead duck. Dissection showed that the rape-victim indeed was of the male sex. It is concluded that the mallards were engaged in an ‘Attempted Rape Flight’ that resulted in the first described case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.

Last night Emilily and I went to see Under the Tuscan Sun. I have to say it was really good. I didn’t really know much about it going into it, but had heard that it had gotten amazing reviews. I give it a definitely thumbs up. The other cool thing is we went to the cool fancy movie theater. It’s got a bar and a restaurant, and if you order your food at the bar they’ll deliver it into the movie theatre. It was kind of odd sitting in nice seats, drinking a beer, having a buffalo chicken wrap brought to my seat and then watching the movie.

I was walking around today and kept thinking of taking pictures to post, and got an idea. I’d ask everyone else what I should take a picture of. So put in your requests, and as long as it isn’t anything too obscene I’ll see what I can do!

Addition: I meant pictures I take with my phone. Just remember, Bloggercon is coming up this weekend so if there is anyone there you want to see a picture of let me know.

SFGate.com has a great article about Apple and their packaging.

And you open the gorgeous black box and lift the white cardboard inside flap, itself adorned with clean offset typeface declaring “Designed by Apple in California,” and you are confronted with what is quite possible the most thoughtfully designed and pleasing packaging you’ve ever seen, not like you care about this stuff and hey it’s all just Styrofoam and garbage anyway, but still.

Cables wrapped in elegant tight slots on the sides. Small manual and paperwork in the center. All clean and clear and meant for optimum visual and tactile experience. Lift out the top half of the foam and there’s the computer itself, solo, centered, encased in beautiful eminently touchable sleek aluminum, a subtle tech-fetish object par excellence, wrapped in delicate foam padding and not cluttered with crap and not requiring you to do anything but lift it out and peel back the sheath and stroke the silver metal and turn it on.

And there it is. The welcome screen. An exquisite downtempo chill soundtrack and the world “Welcome” swimming over the monitor in a number of different languages and you think, what the hell is this? Where’s the pain? Where’s the hassle and the misaligned factory molding and the broken keyboard and the 3,000 setup steps and the sense that I’m drowning in a sea of programmer jargon and plastic waste and ubergeek hell? [SFGate.com]

This is one of the first things I noticed when I bought my first TiBook. Everything was perfect. The packaging was beautiful. Everything was right there when I needed it. It really was great to set up for the first time. This is definitely one of the reasons Apple stuff costs a bit more. But I think I prefer it. Opening up the box to my iPod was definitely more cool than trying to cut open a blisterpack wrapped walkman (when will someone realize that everyone HATES that type of packaging). With Apple it boils down to attention to detail. They think of the little details that are so often missed. It’s hard to not become one of those Apple fanatics after using one for a while.