Culture

HKFlix.com has a new edition of Battle Royale in stock, which may be of interest to — well, it’s of interest to me. I’ve wanted to see this for a while. The plot is simple; a few dozen Japanese teenagers, all from the same high school class, are put on an island. Each one gets a weapon. Last one off wins. Refuse to fight and you die. ...

Hey, it’s about time for Richard Thompson to release a new album (original). There’s a sample song (in WMA format, boo hiss) here (original). (Thanks to Jim Henley.) The album looks pretty stripped down, just him and Danny Thompson and Michael Jerome, who was the drummer on his last tour. I saw one of those shows, and I thought Jerome was really good. The first track is titled “Gethsemane” — I can’t wait. ...