Darylsurat

[NSFW]

This is your Moment of Clarity #242: This is the perfect video for anyone who thinks they're behind the NSA spying program news. Give it a chance. This video is for Obama lovers and haters.

Keep fighting,

Lee

Best known as Raoh in "Fist of the North Star"

Veteran voice actor Kenji Utsumi passed away at 3:01 pm on today June 13th at a hospital in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. He was 75 years old. Utsumi was best known for his voice works for Raoh in the Fist of the North Star anime series. More details after the jump.

So this is what was being sold at Anime Next - a vendor had acquired photography of cosplayers, had the photos printed onto body-pillows, and was selling them. The actual costumers were not amused.

So there's this whole ethical and moral collapse on the part of the vendor. But this is nothing new. Vendors are always out for however they can make the fastest dollar out of the faddiest fad without any of the messy business of copyrights or permission. Fan convention vendors operate in a twilight world, halfway between the guy who sells balloons and glowsticks outside the baseball game and the flea market booth that sells puppies, knockoff handbags, and expired canned goods.

The freewheeling nature of convention dealers rooms is attractive; ideally it means a wide variety of merchandise both new and used, guaranteeing you'll find one-of-a-kind items and rare collectibles. It also means that people without ethics or responsibility will abuse the system at every opportunity.

We've dealt with bootleg anime videos for decades; before there were anime cons, there were comic-con dealers with tables full of VHS they'd copied at home and were now selling for $20 each. Their attitude was a fascinating combination of racism ("We're only ripping off the Japanese!") and a hard-scrabble, very American desire to take what's around you and monetize it, whether it's breeding puppies in the back yard or making folk art out of beer cans or making VHS bootlegs of "Iczer One".

When technology improved so did the bootleg vendors - from bootleg VHS straight to bootleg DVDs and bootleg CDs. You remember Son May CDs, that gray-market 'only in Taiwan' CD label that somehow found its way to the dealers room tables of every anime con? The acres of bootleg wall scrolls? Plenty of vendors were willing to put their ethics on hold for a chance to make money, and plenty of ignorant (or uncaring) anime fans were willing to shell out.

The internet and file-sharing has largely dealt a death blow to the bootleg video industry, but unethical fandom vendors continue to try to squeeze a dollar out of somebody else's work. The Artist Alleys are constantly dealing with plagiarism, with organized attempts to game the system and with fellows like the now-vanished "Shojo Jojo", whose artistic ability was to download other people's artwork, print it onto T-shirts, and sell it.

What this Anime Next vendor is doing with hug-pillows is I guess just an exciting new vision of unethical behavior. They claim their hug-pillows will no longer be available to the general public, and I invite fandom to keep an eye on these people. We've heard those kinds of claims before.

The other problem is that we have a convention that's ostensibly an anime convention, yet here in the vendor's room somebody is selling hug pillows with pictures of Superman on 'em. What's the matter, anime con vendor world, you can't make money off of Japanese animation merchandise any more? And yeah, that's what vendors are telling me, that they can't make money off Japanese animation merchandise.

Here's a news flash. Are you a Japanese toy company or are you licensing Japanese animation characters to toy companies? Then you probably aren't making any money off of Japanese animation. The days of unloading a panel truck full of plushies and wall scrolls onto your exhibit hall table and walking away with a fistful of cash are over. We had a recession. We have a fandom with bedrooms full of wallscrolls and plushies. We have an anime industry that has saturated the market with all the characters that can possibly inspire wallscrolls and plushies.

Does this mean that anime con dealers need to quit selling anime stuff? Enough with the DVDs, with the manga, with the cels, with the model kits, with the diecast toys, with the doujinshi, with the Revoltech figures, with the art books and the Roman Albums? Anime con dealers can't make money selling anime stuff to anime fans? That's the world we're in? I don't buy it. I don't believe anime con dealers rooms need to be filled with internet memes, funny pop-culture t-shirts, hilarious fandom joke buttons, or whatever else the slack-jawed, dead-eyed masses waste their money on, and I wish all that junk would go back to the State Fair midway it came from.

I don't believe anime cons need to sell tables to cosplay photography vendors who are unethical enough to sell body pillows featuring unauthorized American super-hero costumers. We can buy Superman junk anywhere; at the mall, at the thrift store, at the dollar store, at the Sears outlet. There's no shortage of superhero merchandise. That's not why people pay $60 to get in to your con, to buy Superman junk.

So we're dealing with unethical vendors, and we're dealing with an anime con that let them into the dealers room in the first place. Why not get some anime merchandise dealers at your anime con instead? Why are we pandering to the lowest common denominator? Why not at least make a token effort to distinguish our Japanese cartoon conventions from the Dragoncons, the Comic-Con Internationals, the Fan Expos of the world?

(and if anime con vendors can't make money selling anime stuff to anime fans, then by golly, I guess we won't have vendors rooms. We'll have a swap meet on Saturday afternoon instead, and all of us fans can sell each other the junk we bought from you in the first place, and we can spend the rest of the convention having fun instead of shopping. Fine with me.)

Films adapting Akira Toriyama's manga about incompetent inventor to ship in 1 DVD set

Two cels I picked up at Anime North.





I need to go to the Beguiling and see if they still have that Angie Girl cel...

Former NYPD detective Harry Houck on Tuesday told Fox News that Florida teen Trayvon Martin was responsible for his own death because he had a "street attitude."

During a break in witness selection for the trial of accused murderer George Zimmerman, criminal defense attorney Tamara Holder explained to viewers of Fox News' live Internet stream that the prosecution may want to point out that the teen was only carrying Skittles and a can of iced tea at the time of his death.

"She was talking about the Skittles that he had, and the Coca-Cola that Trayvon Martin had," Houck replied. "That doesn't look good, you know, for the defense because [the prosecution is] injecting something into their minds. Like, this is a little kid with candy walking around the street."

"Listen, Trayvon Martin would be alive today, okay, if he didn't, alright, have a street attitude," the former NYPD detective insisted. "That's the bottom line."

"'Street attitude' is a very broad thing and is something that actually can be used -- and I'm not saying this to you personally -- but something that can be used as something racist," Holder pointed out. "Like calling a kid a thug."

"That's insane," Houck laughed.

Following a break, the Fox News host noted that "we live in a society right now that's extremely focused on being politically correct."

"Personally, I think people who use the word 'thug' or believe that the word 'thug' is a racist [word] is racist themselves," Houck opined. "You know, because I call somebody a thug, I'm a racist? No. I don't think so. I mean, that's crazy."

In recent weeks, Sunday morning network news programs have virtually ignored economic issues, instead devoting hours of coverage to the September attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya; improper targeting of conservative nonprofits by the Internal Revenue Service; controversial federal investigations of national security leaks; and new revelations about National Security Agency surveillance programs.

Large Majority Support Discussion of Jobs, Economy

Americans Prioritize Economy Three-To-One. According to a report by Quinnipiac University, 73 percent of Americans would prefer Congress to focus on economic growth and unemployment compared to 22 percent who prefer further investigations into the IRS, Department of Justice and the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya. [Quinnipiac University, 5/30/13]

Outside Of MSNBC, Sunday Shows Have Dropped Economic Coverage

Over Five Weeks, Network And CNN Sunday Shows Combine For Just Half An Hour Of Economic Coverage. Since May 12, Sunday morning political talk shows on the major broadcast networks and on CNN have devoted less than 36 minutes to coverage of economic issues. The same programs devoted roughly 10 hours to discussions of Benghazi, the IRS, the leak investigations, and NSA surveillance programs.

CBS' Face The Nation Devoted Only 12 Seconds To Economic Coverage. During the period reviewed, CBS' Face The Nation spent only 12 seconds on economic issues. The program provided more than 2 hours and 12 minutes of "scandal" coverage, second only to Fox News Sunday's two hours and 25 minutes of "scandal" coverage.

MSNBC Programs Devote Greater Coverage To The Economy. MSNBC provided nearly four hours of economic coverage during this period - roughly seven times the coverage on all the other networks combined. MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry provided nearly three hours of economic coverage while Up with Steve Kornacki provided more than 51 minutes. Even correcting for the fact that MSNBC programs are two hours each while the other programs are only one hour, each MSNBC program clearly devoted substantially more coverage to the economy. 

Methodology

Media Matters viewed coverage of Sunday morning network and cable news programs on May 12, May 19, May 26, June 2, and June 9, and recorded the amount of time spent discussing economic issues and on what we classified as "scandal" coverage.

We defined "scandal" coverage as that which focused on developments regarding the September attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya; improper targeting of conservative nonprofits by the Internal Revenue Service; controversial federal investigations of national security leaks; and new revelations about National Security Agency surveillance programs.

We defined economic news as that which focuses on either micro or macroeconomic issues.

The analysis includes NBC's Meet the Press, CBS' Face the Nation, ABC's This Week, Fox News Sunday, CNN's State of the Union, MSNBC's Up with Steve Kornacki, and MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry.

A Fox News guest on Monday suggested that George Zimmerman's lawyers will be able to argue that their client used reasonable force when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, who was only carrying Skittles and a can of Arizona Iced Tea, because "you could kill somebody" with iced tea.

While waiting for jury selection to begin on Monday, Fox News host Jamie Colby and former federal prosecutor Doug Burns discussed the case on the network's live Internet video stream.

"I know that George Zimmerman's attorney will prove that he has no criminal background, he's not an aggressive guy," the Fox News host explained. "That he's a gentle kind caring soul who was minding the neighborhood, the police didn't get there quick enough and he had reason to pursue, even though he was told no to. He was just doing his Good Samaritan job."

She added that there was "no suggestion that Zimmerman kept banging his head on the sidewalk, doing it to himself."

"If I'm getting beaten up in an ordinary fist fight that's going to leave me -- here's the counterargument -- with a broken nose and some cuts and certainly no life-threatening injuries," Burns pointed out. "Broken nose, we'll assume just hypothetically is not a life-threatening injury. Then so runs the argument, you can't turn around and kill the person."

"The counterargument is, 'Well, wait a minute, you can die in a fistfight,'" he continued. "There's certainly a very good argument to be made that the force used was out of proportion to what was going on, and the kid was unarmed. We didn't even discuss that. Totally different case, let's say the kid had a gun."

"Which he didn't know," Colby observed. "All that Trayvon -- we learned later -- was armed with was a bag of Skittles and an iced tea."

"I know everybody keeps sarcastically saying about he Skittles," Burns complained. "You could probably kill somebody with Skittles."

"It's very compelling," Colby opined. "Only a kid who hadn't had dental work could eat Skittles."

"I know, but I find that rhetoric, 'He had iced tea and a Skittles,' it really doesn't matter," Burns replied. "The point is he didn't have a weapon."

"But he didn't take that iced tea and bang Zimmerman over the head with the bottle," the host noted.

"The thing is, yeah, you're spinning a lot of hypotheticals," Burns agreed. "And you could break a bottle of iced tea, right, with the jagged edge, and you could kill somebody with it."

"You could use it as a weapon," Colby concluded.

New chapter runs in June 10th's issue 28

Last month, the One Piece manga went on hiatus when author Eiichiro Oda was hospitalized with a peritonsillar abscess, stemming from a tonsillitis infection. The good news is the manga has resumed on schedule, with a new chapter in issue 28 of Shonen Jump's 2013 run, on sale June 10th. And, it has returned in force with a cover illustration and color first page spread. Get a look after the jump.

July starts with some familiar footage

As anime has moved to single season runs or breaks between seasons, recap episodes have become more infrequent. However, that's not the case for Attack on Titan. In what continues to be evidently a challenging production, a recap, titled "From That Day" has been planned for episode 14. More after the jump.

Konami's 2002 side-scroller joins the other PS2 classics

Contra: Shattered Soldier, originally released on PlayStation 2 in 2002, is a pretty hard game. It's not so much taxing on the reflexes as it is memory-based, and you can experience all that grief once again when it hits PSN as a PS2 Classic next week. Read on for more.

Hold onto your Power Poles, because Dragonball: Evolution is the Greatest Movie EVER!
Click on the movie poster or the title above to download our review of the podcast,
featuring Gerald Rathkolb, Mike Dent, and Evan Minto.

Review in a Nutshell: A cinematic disaster on multiple levels, Dragonball: Evolution nonetheless has glimmers of competence that make for an entertaining, if cringe-inducing, viewing.

Ever wonder why Bill O'Reilly gets the drop on many of his guests on The Factor? Sure, he's a talented TV show host, but even he needs an advantage. Joe Muto describes BIllo's typical details Billo typical work day in his new book, "An Atheist in the FOXhole: A Liberal's Eight-Year Odyssey Inside the Heart of the Right-Wing Media"

One of the most important things the segment producer did was the pre-interview, which was exactly what it sounds like— we’d interview the guest a few hours before Bill interviewed them. We tried to think of the same questions Bill would ask, and would take notes, condensing and bullet-pointing whatever the guest said. Eventually, we’d give this “POV” to Bill, along with research on the topic.

The end result was that, barring the occasional surprise, Bill knew exactly what his guest was going to say in the interview, sometimes down to the last word. In this way, cable news somewhat resembled professional wrestling: The outcomes were predetermined, with the host not only choosing his guests based specifically on the stance he knew they were going to take, but actually getting a preview of their arguments several hours in advance so he could formulate his counterarguments.

I know many people often cite BIll's editing of each segment which would always give him the upper hand, but knowing what your guest is going to say before he or she says it is not playing it fair and balanced, Billy. Your show is rigged, period.

Fox Business host Stuart Varney dismissed the benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a highly effective anti-poverty program, as "corrupt," falsely claiming that it offers excessive benefits to people "who have never paid a dime in their lives," while admitting, "I am being mean to poor people. Frankly, I am."

On the June 5 edition of Fox & Friends, Varney continued his campaign against the EITC, demonizing the program as a "corrupt" effort to redistribute income to "people who have never paid a dime in their lives" [emphasis added]:

VARNEY: Okay, if you work, on the books, you've got a job but you earn very, very little money, you get a check from the government. It is to make up. It's essentially it's a tax credit in the form of a check from the government. We hand out $79 billion every January to these so-called poor people who get a direct check from the taxpayer. That's not complicated. It is corrupt. Because you've got a lot of people who are not reporting off-the-books income but still getting the check.

GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): Well why you say so, so the so-called poor people. You're not being mean to poor people today.

VARNEY: I am. I am being mean to poor people. Frankly, I am.

CARLSON: Okay.

VARNEY: Because this is a direct transfer payment from this group of people who pay taxes--

STEVE DOOCY (co-host): Right.

VARNEY: To this group of people who have never paid a dime in their lives but they get a check from the government.

 [...]

VARNEY: Let's get to the basics here. This is, in my opinion, a corrupt program administered by the IRS. They're giving out money which they should not be giving out--

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): And why is this?

VARNEY: That budget, the IRS budget is $11 billion. They've given out $13 billion by mistake in this one program.

[...]

Why put these people -- why put the IRS in charge of policing Obamacare?

 [...]

Why do that?

The EITC is set up as a tax credit, not a stipend or a subsidy as Varney implied, and the value is based on the earnings of an individual or family and the number of children supported, increasing in value as workers earn more, until a maximum limit is reached. When earnings reach that certain threshold, payments stabilize and then phase out. The credit is "designed to encourage and reward work" for low-income Americans.

Research has shown that the EITC has been successful at promoting employment. As the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco stated in a March 2012 letter, "[t]he EITC unambiguously encourages some people not working to enter the labor market." The National Bureau of Economic Research similarly found that the EITC has a "substantial, positive effect on the employment of families who have used or will use welfare." And the Congressional Budget Office asserted that the EITC has had particular success in improving employment and reducing poverty for low-income single mothers.

Additionally, the program has helped reduce poverty. A February 1 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) report noted that in 2011, the EITC "lifted an estimated 500,000 people out of poverty and reduced the severity of poverty for approximately 10 million poor people." And an April 9 CBPP report found that the EITC's benefits are far-reaching, including potentially improving infant health and helping to improve child academic performance such that the children of recipients are  "likelier to attend college, and earn more as adults" than if their parents had not received the tax credit.  

Varney has a long history of promoting tax cuts that benefit the rich while pushing to end policies that assist the poor, and has smeared the nation's low-income individuals, going so far as to claim that what low-income people really "lack is the richness of spirit." 

"Chronicles of Mystara" collection is due out on PSN, XBLA, Wii U, and PC in June

Capcom has another character class rollout ready for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara beat 'em up collection. Next up to bat is the Thief, who is great at lockpicking and can detect when a treasure chest is rigged with a trap, among other handy skills. See her in action past the break.

Fox News spent nearly four hours on June 4 covering that day's House committee hearing on the IRS' inappropriate focus on conservative groups, largely ignoring the simultaneous Senate committee hearing into the epidemic of sexual assaults in the military.

Congress Holds June 4 Hearings On Sexual Assaults In The Military And IRS Targeting

Senate Armed Services Committee Held June 4 Hearing On Sexual Assault Crisis In Military. In an effort to curb the epidemic of sexual assaults committed in the military, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing featuring testimony from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top officers from each military branch:

Determined to stop sexual assault in the military, Congress is spelling out for the services how far lawmakers are willing to go in changing the decades-old military justice system.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, and officers heading each branch of the military were to testify Tuesday on Capitol Hill, but it will be members of the Senate who will provide clues as to whether Congress embraces a far-reaching approach to limit the authority that commanders have to discipline the forces they lead.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is a proponent of ambitious legislation that would remove commanders from the process of deciding whether serious crimes, including sexual misconduct cases, go to trial. That judgment would rest with seasoned trial counsels who have prosecutorial experience and hold the rank of colonel or above.

The military has serious reservations about Gillibrand's plan, concerned that stripping commanders of some authority would make it difficult for them to maintain good order and discipline. Not so, say some lawmakers, who argue that the military's piecemeal approach clearly hasn't been the answer. [The Associated Press, 6/4/13]

Alleged Victims Of IRS Targeting Interviewed Before The House Ways And Means Committee. During the second hearing of at least three this week, leaders of conservative groups allegedly targeted by the IRS testified before the House Ways and Means Committee:

Conservative groups who say they were wrongly targeted by the IRS got an opportunity to share their stories on Capitol Hill.

Speaking for the first time before a congressional committee on Tuesday, representatives of six conservative organizations described a delayed process for winning IRS approval for a tax exemption and spoke of "intrusive" questions from the agency focused on political beliefs. [Politico, 6/4/13]

Fox Devoted Nearly Four Hours To IRS Hearing And Less Than 14 Minutes To Military Sexual Assault Hearing

Fox Promised Constant Coverage Of IRS Hearing While Neglecting Military Sexual Assault Hearing. Fox's America's Newsroom aired live footage of the House's IRS hearing before it began, then stayed live for witness testimony and congressional questioning. When cutting live coverage for commercial breaks, co-host Bill Hemmer assured viewers, "We have to take a commercial, we got to pay some bills here, but we will not leave this hearing." By contrast, Fox only went live to the sexual assault hearing before it started, explaining to viewers, "You can watch that hearing on our website at FoxNews.com. Click on the link on the homepage. We've got dueling hearings going on this morning." [Fox News, 6/4/13, via Media Matters]

Analysis: Fox Spent Nearly Four Hours Covering IRS Hearing, Less Than Fourteen Minutes Covering Hearing On Sexual Assault In Military. According to a Media Matters analysis, Fox News devoted 3 hours, 57 minutes to covering the IRS hearing, but spent only 13 minutes, 55 seconds on the military sexual assault hearing. Both MSNBC and CNN were more even-handed in their coverage.

For a breakdown of how cable news has covered the military sexual assault crisis, click here:
http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/05/20/report-fox-news-underreported-sexual-assault-in/194154

Methodology

Media Matters searched internal TV archives and closed captioning for the terms "sexual assault," "military," "IRS," and "hearing" between 5 am and 11 pm on June 4 on all Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC shows.

Reruns and teases for upcoming segments were excluded.

Just two months after Disney cancelled the Cartoon Network series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, they have announced a new series called Star Wars Rebels. The show will debut on the Disney Channel as a one-hour special in 2014, before continuing as a regular series on Disney XD. The show will be set during the two-decade timespan between Episode III and IV, at a time when “the Empire is securing its grip on the galaxy and hunting down the last of the Jedi Knights as a fledgling rebellion against the Empire is taking shape.”

Dave Filoni, who was supervising diretor on Clone Wars, will head up the production as exec producer. He will be joined by Clone Wars veterans Kilian Plunkett (Art Director) and Joel Aron (CG Supervisor), as well as some fresh faces:

Leading the development of the series is a creative team of exceptional talent. Screenwriter/producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class, Sherlock Holmes, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) is an executive producer on Star Wars Rebels and will write the premiere episode. He is joined by Dave Filoni as executive producer, who served as supervising director of the Emmy nominated Star Wars: The Clone Wars since 2008. Executive producer Greg Weisman brings with him a wealth of animation experience with credits such as Young Justice, The Spectacular Spider-Man and Gargoyles.

Super-deformed series starts streaming today at 5pm Pacific

Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star is doubling up Crunchyroll duties with his starring role in the super-deformed anime spin-off DD Fist of the North Star. The series starts streaming today at 5pm Pacific. More after the jump.

Republicans have a bigger problem than whether to go after the president for Benghazi or the IRS. In a report commissioned by the College Republicans, young people are overwhelmingly negative about the GOP, calling them "racist, rigid and old-fashioned."

Here are some interesting quotes from the report, which you can download here.

Who will try harder?

For those respondents who said they approved fo the job Obama had been doing as president, the number one word they used? "Trying." He was trying. Young voters were disappointed in Obama's performance but gave him credit for attempting to improve the situation. In our focus groups, many respondents strongly defended President Obama even while acknowledging the mediocrity of the last four years. And when it came to "trying," they doubted Republicans would do any better; that same survey showed only one in four young people thought Mitt Romney would put into place policies that would make it easier for young people to get jobs.

Health Care

In the August XG survey, young voters handed Democrats a heavy advantage on the issue, preferring their handling of health care to Republicans' by a 63-37 margin...repealing Obamacare had the second lowest number of young people saying they thought it would make them better off (37 percent)...

Many of of the young people in our focus groups noted that they thought everyone in America should have access to health coverage.

Student Loan Debt

Student loans are seen as a weight around the necks of young voters, an obstacle that prevents them from achieving their goals.

Abortion

Unfortunately for the GOP, the Republican Party has been painted -- both by Democrats and by unhelpful voices in our own ranks -- as holding the most extreme anti-abortion position (that it should be prohibited in all cases). Furthermore, the issue of protecting life has been conflated with issues around the definition of rape, funding for Planned Parenthood, and even contraception.

Same-sex Marriage

Yet it was unmistakable in the focus groups that gay marriage was a reason many of these young voters disliked the GOP. As one young man in our Columbus focus group put it, "In this last election, everyone said that the biggest issue was the economy. I think to a lot of people that definitely was the case, but that comes to things we talked about earlier, where you can agree with so much of their things, but if there is just that one thing -- a lot of those social issues that you can't get behind -- and see, everything is in two buckets, and if one of those things in those buckets is something you just can't agree with then [it doesn't] matter what else is there, economic or otherwise.

General perception of the GOP

Asked which words least described the GOP, respondents gravitated toward "open-minded" (35%), "tolerant" (25%), "caring" (22%), and "cooperative" (21%).

Immigration and Demographics

The issue of the Republican Party's challenges with the youth vote and the part's challenges with non-white voters are inseparable.

I don't see these things changing any time soon. Marco Rubio is already stepping away from his bold posture on immigration while the House of Representatives repeals Obamacare yet again. This isn't a branding problem; it's a leadership and funding problem. As long as old-fashioned rigid bigots hold the pursestrings, that party isn't going to change in a way that would attract young voters now or in the near future.

By Gary Mehaffy | garymehaffy@hotmail.co.uk | @gmehaffy

What drew you into the British wrestling scene back in the day?

I honestly couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was. The earliest memory I have as a child was watching wrestling on a Saturday afternoon with my granddad. I was born in a house 50 yards away from the house that my dad was born in. I spent a lot of time there watching it on ITV – from the age of 4 or 5 that’s what I remember doing. It just captivated me.

I couldn’t tell you who it was, or what it was, it was just part and parcel of my childhood. It was all I ever talked about and all I ever wanted to do. I never wanted to do anything else – well, I did.

Charlie Cairoli was a very famous clown who used to be on in Blackpool Tower. He had a TV show and I loved to watch him – so it was either a clown or a wrestler. They stick out in my mind. I was very fortunate – I wasn’t born in Blackpool, I was from Codsall Wood and our local arena was the Wolverhampton Civic Centre. At 7 years of age my dad used to take me every two weeks, on a Tuesday night.

That was where I got to see all of the big rivalries. It was being run by Joint Promotions at the time. I was there for a lot of the TV tapings – I was there the night that Kendo Nagasaki unmasked. It was an incredible time for wrestling.

I used to go every two weeks when it ran, which was from September until the end of May. Then they’d have the summer off. Then we would go to places like Blackpool or Rhyl for a few days at a time and I’d get to see wrestling there as well. When I’d go to Blackpool – and I think I was about 9 – I’d see Bobby Baron’s Wrestling Booth and it completely captivated me again. From that day onwards I just wanted to be a wrestler. I wanted to work on that booth – I thought it would be the greatest job in the world! That’s probably being very nostalgic, but that’s truly how I felt as a child.

To get myself prepared for wrestling, I did some judo and some training. When I was 15, at the weekends, I started hanging around at the Horseshoe Show Bar. Bobby Baron – who was a wonderful man – took me in and I started working on that. I was still at school, and at the weekends I’d go there. I left school when I turned 16 on May 10th, 1984 and I finished on May 18th. I worked for my dad for a few weeks to get some money, as a bricklayer, and I went to Blackpool from then onwards.

It’s funny you mentioning Blackpool. My first wrestling memory was in Blackpool, apparently, when I was 5 in 1981. My dad had splashed out on front row seats for the wrestling, and when the first match started the heel came out and yelled at the crowd, at which point I began to cry and ran to the back. So Blackpool was really the first place where I got sucked into it.

Was that at the Tower, too?

I honestly don’t know, I’d have to ask him. I just remember him saying it was either the wrestling or ‘The Grumbleweeds’.

Yea, ‘The Grumbleweeds’! They were there at the time, too. That whole scene – I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s – those were the shows that were available to me. Being from a working class family, you grew up watching things like that, or ‘The Comedians’. Then you could go to Blackpool and actually see them as well! From my childhood I would go there and then when I moved there I was part of that too. I remember telling guys who are getting involved and creating characters for themselves – never forget what you liked as a child. When you get older and you understand it a bit more you like the better wrestlers, but when I was a child it was the characters that made me get into wrestling; Mick McManus, Steve Logan and Sid Cooper – he was so insane! Even as a little child he would have me screaming and shouting and have me laughing the next, then two minutes later I’d be screaming at him again. They had great control of the crowd. But even then, at the age of 7, I was also a Big Daddy fan.

But at the age of 10, my world changed – that was the first time I remember seeing Marc Rocco against Marty Jones. That changed the wrestling industry, whether anybody wants to admit it or not. From then on, that style went around the world. Dynamite, who at that point had been doing a traditional style of wrestling, went to Stampede with it. They’d had a few matches but I hadn’t really noticed. I used to love Johnny Saint. I loved the bad guys, I used to gravitate towards them (laughs), but I loved Johnny Saint. I loved Jim Breaks – I talk a lot about wrestling, but I don’t think Jim Breaks gets enough credit. I obviously do when I watch him, and I realise how good he was. He might have been the best heat getting wrestler out of all of them.

He used to be able to get English people to hate him by doing very, very little. The heat that he had was incredible. So it sort of went from there and I really started paying attention to the industry, and watching the good wrestlers and that’s what I wanted to do. People ask me if UFC had been around then would I have gotten into it? Absolutely no way. I wrestle in a very physical way, but I’m a pro wrestler.

You mentioned Rocco and Marty Jones. Around the 1970’s to the mid-80’s there were many revered wrestlers coming through. There was yourself, Fit (Finlay) , Davey Boy (Smith), Dynamite (Kid), Dave Taylor, Robbie Brookside, and so on. Do you think we’ll see a talent pool like that again, that will have such a major effect on the worldwide scene?

No reason why there couldn’t be. There are enough people there. The only difference now is that we all made names for ourselves by being different. We all had our different styles. Dynamite was doing things in Calgary that were just incredible. So was Rocco. Fit , once Rocco left, he was the man (in the UK scene).He was my favourite when I was in my teens. Being from Northern Ireland, as you would appreciate, he could get any reaction in England without doing anything (laughs). With the whole package with him and Paula, even before that, he was superb. We had our own styles, our own way of doing things. But now, I think people have to adapt to wherever they go, whatever company they are in. But as I said, I say to them to not forget what you liked as a child. Never let that go away.

These young guys are looking for a character, they haven’t necessarily developed one. So I tell them to think back on what they liked. If you’re like everybody else, why should you get hired? It’s not that if you are you won’t get hired, because you might, but how else are you going to make a splash? Unless you’ve got an amazing physique, or two heads, or are seven feet eight! (laughs) You’ve got to have something! I’m just a normal person who’s had to make a character out of himself. Luckily for me, because my only interests were wrestling and entertainment/comedy, I took bits from all of that and made it, and keep evolving it, to become the thing that I’ve become – which is like a ‘Carry On’ character. People in Britain reading this will know what that is, but people in the U.S. might wonder! I’m like a caricature of everything (in the films).

That was the whole point when I came over to America. Once I’d figured out how to be a character, I knew that everybody in Britain would be in on the act with me – wink, wink to you. You’re going to see that I’m being this over the top character. Everybody else might not see it, but you’re going to get it and you’re going to always like me! And if you don’t, great, then hate me anyway! I didn’t have a long, laid out plan. But you’ve got to be an individual! That’s what I tell everyone now – you’ve got to stand out. I’ve been lucky enough to be working with the crew down in NXT, and you’ve got Adrian Neville who has an outstanding skill set, an exceptional skill set. He looks like being not just a flying guy – he’s got it all.

I saw him on an indy show a few years ago here in Belfast, which also had Sheamus and Drew McIntyre on it. You could see, that out of everyone on the show, you could look at the three of them and say “They’re getting this! They know what to do.” That they were developing what they would do here (in the U.K./Ireland) and take it across (to the U.S.).

Sheamus has everything going for him. And he’s been blessed with that great look! (laughs) I know that people can get offended by it, but people see me on screen as a stereotypical Englishman and he has what everybody else in the world perceives makes you an Irishman! But everywhere he goes, people turn their heads to stare at him. Naturally having those genes makes him stand out. Adrian Neville has his exceptional skill set. He has that on top of being English. Once the audience in England find out about him, they’ll take to him. They’ve not seen anyone who can do what he can do for the last 20 years, let alone an Englishman. So when he goes nationwide, he’ll have an incredible run.

You have been involved in transferring from wrestling on the main roster to working with the new incarnation of NXT in Florida. Outside of Adrian Neville, who you mentioned, and Bray Wyatt, who had his vignettes start this week on Raw, who do you see in developmental who could have a major impact on the main scene?

It’s a good question, but it’s one that I don’t really like to answer. It can be too much pressure on you. It’s difficult enough to succeed with having people like me putting that kind of pressure put on you. I mentioned Adrian Neville, and I’m wary of doing so, and I will just leave it there. Everybody there has a chance. It’s all theirs for the taking. There are an incredible team of people that want you to succeed. Anybody that thinks that the people down there (NXT/Florida) are trying to hold anybody back – they are insane. We are there to make everybody a star, if they want to be a star. But it’s how much work are they going to put into it? You hear about people saying “I’m not getting a chance”. They need to look at themselves and maybe they’re not doing what they need to do. People don’t see what’s going on 24 hours a day and it gets frustrating seeing them not (make it). Perhaps he’s not doing what he needs to do to be a star, for whatever reason. So unless you know what’s going on, some of that stuff is very annoying.

It happened in my career, and at the time I didn’t realise – but now, I’m older, I look back on it and say “I shouldn’t have done that, I shouldn’t have done that, I should have done that”. I’ve done things in my past that I shouldn’t. Sometimes people think they can get by just wrestling, but to be a WWE Superstar it’s not just about wrestling, It’s the all-around package.  Carrying yourself like a star. It’s being able to communicate with people. Like what we’re doing now. It’s all about promotion. Talking normally to people like you. (laughs) If you can’t be trusted to talk to people (to promote the company) then you won’t get the chance to. It’s the simple things. There are a lot of things that go in to being a WWE Superstar. Everybody down there has the opportunity of a chance.

I truly hope that they realise it and put the work in. People like me have the chance to help them out and give them advice, but they’ve got to understand what they’re getting themselves into. Doing media or radio interviews on your day off, etc. If you’re not very good, or if you’re not willing to put the time in, then it (your career) is not going to last very long. People have to remember what a lot of hard work goes into being a WWE Superstar – it’s not just the wrestling.

What does the future hold for you? On the last few UK tours you’ve said that each may be your last one, and on a personal note I’m still waiting for the William Regal/Fit Finlay TV or PPV match – although I think that ship might have sailed! – but do you see yourself getting more involved in developmental or training, or how do you see your role transitioning?

I honestly don’t know. That’s out of my hands. I do so many different things in the company. I’ve had the chance to do so many different things that there’s not a lot that I can’t do. I can still wrestle when I need to, or when I’m needed to. I love doing the commentating on NXT. I’ve loved getting to do that. I love getting the talent over. I work on the road, so I’m always at TV’s. I do a lot of things with a lot of the talent, helping them out, mentoring some of them, etc. There are that many things that I’ve worked on over the years, I don’t really know! I definitely feel like a little bird in a cage sometimes!

I have done a lot of things, and I do some of them really well. I just keep going. I let life get on with me now and not the other way around!

A speaker at a tea party event in Texas recently suggested that that anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist was a secret Muslim because "he has a beard."

In a video posted by the Far North Dallas Tea Party on Thursday, Texas Eagle Forum President and former Chairman of the Texas Republican Party Cathie Adams presented evidence that Norquist was part of a "stealth jihad" in the United States.

Adams said that Norquist, who is married to a Muslim woman, was "trouble with a capital 'T'" because "he's showing signs of converting to Islam himself."

"As you see, he has a beard," she pointed out. "He's married a Muslim woman. But he denies that he has converted himself. He denies that."

"He and Karl Rove are very good friends. I don't like Karl Rove, and I certainly don't like Grover Norquist."

Adams went on to suggest that CIA Director John Brennan could also be a secret Muslim.

"Where is the outcry?" she asked. "Thank God that Ted Cruz is now in the United States Senate!"

Norquist, along with conservative activist Suhail Khan, are often labeled as stealth Muslims by Islamaphobic conservative activists led by Pamela Geller, Frank Gaffney and Robert Spencer, most recently at at 2013 CPAC panel.

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

Announcement part of plan to bring critically acclaimed animated films to North American audiences

GKids has confirmed plans to work with Cinedigm on a home video release of Studio Ghibli's From Up on Poppy Hill. The movie is the first of seven new GKIDS titles included under the pact to release critically acclaimed films to North America audiences in theaters, as well as on Blu-ray, DVD and video on demand. More after the jump.

The world is full of great mysteries, but perhaps none are more potent than this one: How did Daryl Surat manage to get hooked on an anime like AKB0048 ? Thankfully, his feature in our latest issue answers all those burning questions and more as he dives into what makes chief director Shoji Kawamori's show such an alluring piece of sci-fi idol worship. There is, of course, that Kawamori connection. But the mind behind classic classic fare like Macross Plus isn't the only winning factor in this dystopian...