Colin, fellow Saxman:
> Ooh, the Mark VI.  Ever played one?  My friend has one her father played
> in college, and I gotta say, it is one sweet lady, even after all the
> hell she put it through.  Damn, but I coulda smacked her for all that. 

One of our students has one in mint form.  The original owner bought it in
'63, played two gigs on it, packed it away when he moved to another city,
and forgot about it until 1994.  My friend bought it for a mere $2k, and
several professional players (Dave Pietro, for one) who came down to
clinic our jazz fest offered to write him a check for it right on the
spot. ^_^

Matt man:
> For those of you who don't remember me, this is good ol' Matt Newkirk.
> Yes, Matt Newkirk.  Matt...Newkirk.  Anyways...  

Hey Matt - I remember ya! Welcome back!

Uh, Dale...your schpeel on Anime and sexism?  That was pretty cool, man.
An excellent start on a topic which we don't cover much, and a perfectly
excellent response by Al.  That was some PRIME reading.

I'll simply add by saying you might call me sexist.  Strangely enough,
Belldandy is sort of the total dream girl for me.  Not necessarily because
of her attitude of servetude, but her sweetness.  I like the way Dark
Horse summerizes her:

BELLDANDY:
Goddess First Class (Unlimited).
Very loving, very kind.

That's pretty much what I want - and while it often seems like it, I don't
think of Bel like a robot who simply does what Keichii wants (because if
she did what Kei-kun wanted, the series would lose a lot of the comic
tension).  I think she has this ultimate respect for Keichii at an equal
amount that Keichii gives her.  With the exception of his wish, he doesn't
ask for anything unreasonable of her.  He treats her as an equal, and she
simply feels that she serves him best by acting as a 'housewife.'  After
all, those of us currently enrolled in higher education can attest - we
are VERY busy, and finding time to clean up, eat healthy, and even find
good company is tough without some help.  More than this, she gives him a
sense of completeness.

What does she get in return?  The exact same thing.  Keichii gives her a
sense of completeness, because she enjoys continually working and helping
- it is not sexism, it is simply SELFLESSNESS that is a part of her.  When
another person is threatened, she acts in order to defend them.  And
Keichii is trying his hardest to be the best companion for Bel he can be;
he often questions why he was chosen, if he is suitable, and if he's doing
enough to make Bel happy.  

His actions speak quite a bit, too - consider that Urd is kind of a pest
(I love her to death, though).  She's a bit troublesome to have around,
especially for Keichii, and moreso for Skuld.  

URD:
Goddess Second Class (Limited).
Belldandy's big sister.  Very sexy, very naugty.

But when Urd goes missing
(kidnapped and cloned, as it were), Keichii doesn't hesitate to go out and
search for her, even if she is a load of trouble.  Why?  Because Urd is
important to Belldandy, and as a result, Urd is important to him.

This is a serious two way street, that in America, can EASILY be
misconstrued for sexism.  I think people here too quickly jump to take
things at face value.  That's why people jump up and down at the first ep.
of Ranma or GitS and scream that it's porn, or watch a few eps. of Eva
scream that it's violent.  

It all boils down to the cartoon mindset, and if people would read or
watch with the same intensity and heart that they do with Silence of the
Lambs or Dances With Wolves, that there is a lot more going on than just
some drawings on the page/screen.  

Anyways...enough of that.

Jim Lazar-tag (boy, those were the days of youth...):
> You really shouldn't post spoilers to Eva like this (especially on a
> Ranma ML).

Aw, it ain't nothing.  Hell, spoilers like this constituted a good 1/3 of
the traffic here this time last year.  Eva was a big time discussed topic
when it was new, and it sure as heck is more pleasant to talk about HERE
than on the Eva ML.  The people there are all pri...precocious buttheads.

(Several of us have been there, and decided that this was heaven.)

Besides, this is a serious Spam ML anyway.  Haven't you figured that out
yet?  If it can be expressed it words, it will be expressed here, whether
it be Eva, or the absorbent effeciency comparisons of a winged maxi vs. a
curved tampon.

Yeah, we talk about Ranma.  But we talk about other things too.  It keeps
us from becoming like the Eva ML. 

> That's like telling someone who is just watching the
> original Star Wars or the beginning of Empire Strikes Back that Darth
> Vader is Luke's father.

What?  Darth Vader is Luke's father?  What the hell?!  Ben said Vader
killed Luke's father!  What the hell's up with this?

I guess I better go watch Empire now...

> BTW, no need to curse... I just made a suggestion that you be careful to
> avoid spoilers. Especially EVA spoilers on a Ranma ML.

I guess all of us were up for crucifixion last year...too bad you weren't
around for it...

Okay, now I'm going to give my schpeel on An vs. Mg...

Actually I'm going to cut and paste from prior posts.  Here we go.

Yes, the anime does establish character.  But there are times where it is
out of character with the manga.  Now, someone else has taken the
character and changed it, diverting it from the original course that the
creator intended...and it can no longer be considered the same.  If it's
not the same, then how can you use it in a comparison?  That's why I used
TECHNICALLY in my last post, because the anime doesn't stray too
much...but enough at times. 

I posted that almost two years ago to Tony Julian.

Here's the deal. (This is all new.)

I create a work of art.  It is exactly how I want it to be.  Everything I
wanted.  And now I'm going to add to it.  But it is everything I intended
from the very beginning - it will go where I want it to, and do exactly
what I created it for.

Now, someone else has come in, and added something I didn't.  It is no
longer everything I intended - it has been changed, and altered from the
path that I set from it's very inception to it's destination.

Anyone see the movie Amadaeus?  Remember when Solieri writes a march in
Mozart's honor?  Then Mozart plays it, and says..."Hmm, that doesn't
really work.  I think I'll do this...maybe even this.  That's good, or how
about this?"

Solieri is fuming.  Why?  Because something sacred to him - a part of him
that he put down on paper, has been taken from him, manipulated, and
tossed in a direction he specifically didn't want it to go.  Maybe it WAS
inferior.  But it is SOLIERI's, and that is something sacred.  I can tell
you this as a composer myself.

So why is the manga considered canon?  Because it is exactly as Ranma was
MEANT to be, from inception to destination.  There was no Mozart to say,
"No no!  Ranma can't do that!"  True, pure art is that which has complete
freedom by the creator without someone else deciding how things should
be done, and because she is the creator, what she says is.

It's not CRAP.  It's a seriously LOGICAL and well thought out way of
viewing the situation.  

Anyways....I've ranted enough for one ni...er, morning.

J. Shouryu Nohe
http://web.nmsu.edu/~jnohe
Professor of SCSM102, New Mexico State Univ.
"If I wanted a 'job,' I'd have gone music ED, thank you very much!"