Arenas x UNDRCRWN

Gilbert Arenas has teamed with streetwear brand UNDRCRWN to produce some pretty cool t-shirts that celebrate his status as the league's premier sneaker king (I guess since his basketball game is pretty average). He also has this pretty cool symbol going, another homage to Penny Hardaway's classic "one cent" logo.



Arenas continued to turn heads in a loss to the Miami Heat, wearing the Royal Foamposite Ones that Penny Hardaway made famous against the (who else?) Miami Heat in the 1997 playoffs.

TRIUMVIR x SFA3

That Nash shirt is so clean.





Check them out: www.triumvir.com

UT x Japan Game

I was walking through UNIQLO the other week, and I noticed that they had a bunch of shirts with designs inspired by popular video games. I just had to get me this Tekken one with Kuma.



Other featured games include Biohazard, Bomberman, Street Fighter, Rockman, and more. Check them out.

Eureka Seven and April splurge: the aftermath

Listening to:
Eureka Seven: Complete Best
track: 「虹」by 電気グルーヴ

Some quick Eureka Seven thoughts before I forget. I still like RahXephon a little better, mostly for reasons that are largely aesthetic in nature, but on a purely personal level, I have to stick Eureka Seven ahead of Evangelion on my list of all-time favorite titles. The highlight of the show? Denki Groove's (電気グルーヴ) "Niji" plays at the show's final climatic scene, and contextually, the song is just magic. I can't really go into it any more without coming off as totally cornball here, but the final 5 minutes of the show, coupled with the 50 episode buildup preceding it, is just something that's really quite poignant and incredibly rewarding. Overall, the characters are very deep, and much in the same way that I felt the cowardly protagonist was what made Eva so enigmatic and true to life, the type of self-doubt and the subsequent character growth displayed by Eureka Seven's main players are what really power the show. What's great here is that the character development is set at a slow boil over the course of 50 episodes, and aside from a filler ep. or two, the various tangents never stray particularly far from the main story arc. The thing about Eva was that it turned out to be, for lack of a better term, a tragedy piece, and given the mainstream following that the show eventually garnered, audiences weren't necessarily ready for that type of mindfuck at the time. It's interesting, because Gainax's penchant for terrible endings aside (Eva, KareKano, Mahoromatic, etc.), you don't see that type of tragic, apocalyptic ending with the giant robot shows so much anymore, because studios are afraid of receiving the kind of backlash that Eva initially did. In the end though, I don't really like comparing Eureka to Eva, because though the two shows certainly possess multiple similarities, Eva is truly a unique, groundbreaking beast of a show, while Eureka is a wonderful little love story with a really, really good sci-fi backdrop. Given that the lead character is 14, there's really no shortage of corny lines, and though there are a handful of characters that can get real irritating, most likely by design, the product as a whole is a masterpiece in my humble opinion. Not my favorite show of all time by any means, but it's certainly in the top 5.

April purchases, revisited:

4/1 Kimura Kaela - +1 (album + DVD)
4/1 1969 - Maya (CD)
4/5 Air Jordan XX3 stealth/gold (apparel/footwear)
4/15 Eureka Seven Vol. #12 (DVD)
4/15 Eureka Seven Music (DVD w/ bonus CD)
4/16 Morning Musume - Resonant Blue (single + DVD)
4/18 Bleach Vol. # 33 (manga)
4/22 Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES (PS2)
4/22 The World Ends With You (Nintendo DS)

I couldn't find a copy of the 1969 record anywhere, although I should have figured as much beforehand. That's really the one thing that sucks about not having Tower Records around anymore; if you're looking for anything even remotely obscure, you're going to have to find it on the web. I decided to pass on The World Ends With You for the time being, not because of any current monetary issue, but because I can't realistically play a DS game until I get my new glasses. So, although I did manage to save about 50 bones by cutting out a couple of items from the list, I unfortunately spent $200+ on the aforementioned prescription glasses, another chunk on a physical exam sans any medical insurance, and the usual sum on various impulse DVD (Rob & Big seasons 1&2), literature (Foer's Everything Is Illuminated), game (Arcana Heart), music (She & Him!), and clothing purchases (a pair of jackets to get ready for, uh, summer). That being said...

Projected damage: approx. $400
Actual damage: approx $1000

I'm a little afraid to see what happens when I add my car insurance, gas, food, and phone expenses to that. Of course, the best part is that there are still five days left in April. I'm not trying to shoot down any personal spending records by any means, but certain silly things happen to me when I have the money to throw around. Questionable? Perhaps. But irresponsible? Nah, I don't think so. I was weighing the various pros and cons of the PS3, the Wii, and the X-Box 360, when it occurred to me that I could conceivably afford to get all three if I so wanted to. But the reality is that I can still play the PS2 for days on end when I have the time to do so, and like it or not, I've got to pocket a couple of grand before I head to Japan. So that's me being somewhat levelheaded for a change.

Cool For Thought

Listening to:
Lupe Fiasco
The Cool

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be working at another center every Wednesday. I suppose I could use the extra cash, but I've really come to rely on having those Wednesdays off, especially since I work on Saturdays and usually end up doing my contract job on Sundays. I won't pretend to be overworked in the least, but any night when I can spare an hour or two to play video games or pop in a DVD is starting to feel like a huge treat. By my calculations, I've got about 3 and 1/2 part-time jobs at the moment, all of which can be potentially rough in the stress department, but none of which have successfully run me ragged (at least to date). Of course, the logical thing to do would be to just get one full-time position, but I'm kind of enjoying the opportunity to try my hand as a jack of all trades, even if it means I end up being a master of none. As flawed as I may be, "lack of versatility" is one thing that prospective employers won't be able to hit me with. The next step? Actually trying to put away a bit of that money.

Just had to get me one:



TRUTH

RBK Question III

As is generally the annual holiday trend for me, I went Christmas shopping this past weekend and ended up buying a little something for myself.



I'd been trying to get away from buying non-retro performance sneakers, but I really dig these Question IIIs. I love how Reebok kept the twin hexalite windows that the original Questions had for that whole honeycomb effect. Throw on the oversized strap for a more futuristic feel, and you've got a pretty nice looking sneaker. Maybe not nice enough to warrant the $90 retail, but totally worth it at the price I managed to land them at. Plus, now I have a pair of shoes to kick around with the powder blue UNDRCRWN tee that I had stocked away in my closet. The set will probably have me looking like a huge Iverson fan, but I guess that's ok.