Ever notice how it's the little things in life that amuse us so much? More to the point, ever notice how it's the silly little idiocies in life that amuse us more than anything else? Well, this is not as much ''the little blog that could'' as it is ''the blog that enjoys going up the down escalator in your local mall.'' Will it have anything of real importance? No, probably not. But enjoy the ride never the less!

 


Today has saddened me. Not because of more examples at work about the whole "replacing existing staff with flying monkeys" thing, happily. But alas, our local anime & manga hub, Gemini Jetpack, will be closing its doors for good at the end of April. There's a fair bit contributing to their decision to close, not the least of which is that multiple family were recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Still, for the last few years Gemini remained our happy hook-up. They'd always get the new manga, and their anime library (which outclasses even Gary's collection) was entirely rental-based. Granted, the arrival of YouTube has crushed that a fair bit, since people can download and watch for free...but I really liked renting a DVD to see if I'd want to collect a series. There are a few occasions where that saved me from taking a risk and buying some seriously bad anime.

And the manga! Mel & I have multiple, ongoing collections. Gemini had a list of our collections and would always set aside the newest volume(s) for us whenever they came in. I was on an exclusive members list, dammit! Since I'm not big into the club scene, this is the closest I can get to feeling all trendy & VIPish.

I can't say I blame the owners for closing shop, but I'm really going to miss Gemini, and I am going to miss them too. Not only were they cool people, but they knew their anime. They were comic lovers and otaku. And best of all, they had a great sense of humour, enough to laugh at some of the silly things found in anime and its various fandoms.

I wish Gemini and its crew all the best, but that won't stop me from mourning the passing of a wonderful shop.

And now, with all the dramallama over & done with (since pyjamallama doesn't seem to be garnering a following, I've switched to something more alliterative), let's move on to Today's Lesson: snow in April is wrong (unless, of course, you're in the upper northern or southern regions...or in a mountain range). Someone must inform Winter of this.

Labels: a lack of flying monkeys, Gemini Jetpack, pyjamallama

posted by Phillip at 9:02 PM