Every day, I like to go over to Lisa's blog and marvel at all the amazing stuff she finds. "Wow, this is great!" I'll think to myself.
"Why won't she post this kind of cool Japan stuff to Table of Malcontents? Should I fire her?" At that point, I'll tear off my stretchy shirt (much like Hulk Hogan) and roam through the apartment in a terrible fit of destructive rage (much like the Incredible Hulk).
But then I unclench. Because as much as I think a good firing mdash; when done randomly, cruelly and in the most humiliating way possible mdash; is an excellent managerial technique to keep the writer's bullpen on its toes, the fact of the matter is that Lisa's amazing Tokyo Mango finds equal free money in my pocket when I just up and steal them. For example, without Lisa, I'd have had no idea that one of my favorite artists mdash; Hayao Miyazaki, director of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke; creator of the greatest graphic novel ever written in Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind mdash; was commissioned to create for display outside of Japan's Nippon Television Network Corporation head quarters.
What he came up with seems to hail to the Bavarian automaton steampunk design of Howl's Moving Castle. It's called the Nittere-Ohdokei (NTV Grand Clock) and blacksmith automatons come out every couple of hours at the chime of the clock to play music. Studio Ghibli's website is worth checking out for the blueprints and artist's sketches of the clock, though it's all in Japanese.
Likewise, an article about the unveiling of the Nittere-Ohdokei can be found . And hit the jump for a video of Miyazaki's clock in action..
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