Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!gcd.org!vda-gw!newsfeed.hashimoto.gr.jp!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!nntp.gol.com!jpix!news.zaq.ne.jp!news01.pwd.ne.jp!news.htcn.ne.jp!nd-tk001.ocn.ad.jp!cobalt01.janis.or.jp!not-for-mail From: Edward Mills Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Dear Tokyo Drivers, Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 16:53:30 +0900 Organization: JANIS Net Lines: 62 Message-ID: <1it99te2tr6a9.32t5y92a2dsk$.dlg@40tude.net> References: <1cjegqjy5so4n.1w5rp0oicgboz.dlg@40tude.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 172.21.26.81 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: cobalt01.janis.or.jp 1110182134 3955 172.21.26.81 (7 Mar 2005 07:55:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@cobalt01.janis.or.jp NNTP-Posting-Date: 7 Mar 2005 07:55:34 GMT User-Agent: 40tude_Dialog/2.0.15.1 X-Forwarded: by - (DeleGate/5.9.3) Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:25911 On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 21:18:45 +0900, Michael Cash wrote: > On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 19:42:21 +0900, Edward Mills > brought down from the Mount tablets inscribed: > > >> >>btw: I have found the perfect way to get to sleep. I start listening to an >>episode of the Shadow, and within 15 minutes tops, I am sound asleep. Every >>night for the last two weeks I have tried listening to one, and every last >>single time, I end up waking up in the morning without a clue as to what >>happened to the bad guys. > > "The Whistler" is pretty good for that purpose too. Which is odd, > considering it is a uniformly well-written, well-produced, and > well-acted program. It's not the fact that the Shadow shows are poorly written, or hokey, or completely implausible. I get sleepy listening to them because they are just so comfortable to listen to. That whole vibe from the beginning "hahahaha the shadow knows", to the organ music, to the coal commercials, to the knowledge that the shadow will inevitably triumph is one of the most relaxing feelings I've had since I got married. > Maybe the conspiratorial semi-whispering tone of > the narrator has something to do with it. You're going to experience a > severe letdown with the Shadow when you reach the part where Orson > Welles and Agnes Moorehead leave. It was all downhill after them. I'm still working on the earliest shows so it's going to take quite a long time before I get to that point, especially since I never listen to them except in bed with the lights turned down low and the family downstairs watching some stupid TBS comedy show. > I sometimes listen to a show while drifting off to sleep. I use my mp3 > player in combination with one of those old-fashioned monaural > earphones. You know, the kind you see old men wearing at the race > track. Available at finer 100 yen shops everywhere. For some reason I > enjoy listening to the shows better on one of those than I do with the > stereo headphones. That's one of my biggest problems right now. The only way I can listen to them is from my computer which is in my office, which is hooked up to a big stereo, which makes lots of whirring noises, and my wife is starting to wonder why I spend hours in my office with the lights turned off and the blankets and pillows from the bed are missing... I'm thinking that maybe I can burn them onto a CD after converting the MP3 files to something that a CD player can identify. > One hint on listening to the programs in general: Many of them sound a > lot better if you adjust your equalizer. Turning the bass waaay down > helps remove a lot of objectionable noise sometimes. I already figured that one out. It works some of the time, but some objectionable noises just piss me off. You can hear some idiot laughing during one of the earliest shadow episodes. It's rather obvious that he was laughing at the "blue coal" commercial, and thought it great fun that people used to use coal to heat their houses. I'd like to zip that guy back to the middle ages and introduce him to the concept of sleeping on urine drenched straw to keep warm!!! Grrrrr!!!!