It's been BUSY. The class, in 6th week now, is kicking my ass. Job is a mad scramble. Advisor is chomping my ears off. And someone stole my iPod. A week or so ago, I went to Chinatown with Gerry to get some Joy-Yi in me. It was good. On the way back, he stopped at a chinese grocery store called Chinese Grocery Store or somesuch. Wandering the aisles, while Gerry bought 8 packs of lichi gummy bears, I happened across ULTRAMAN gum.
One glance and it was like my entire childhood flashed before me. I had totally forgotten about it. Me and the brothers used to love watching Ultraman dubbed into Arabic on DohaTV or whatever it was called. There is something weirdly appealing about a Japanese man in tight rubber. Yes, that sounds perverted, but imagine me a wholesome child, will you? We would recast Ultraman laser ray encounters with the floppiest monsters you will ever see. Such great fun.
And, a few weeks ago Cha'nad had a post up about Captain Majid. That was the other favorite. Along with Abtal al Malaeb - I don't even know which Japanese version that was?
And the London Review blog had a post up about Enid Blyton. God, how many hours of my life I spend reading The Famous Five or The Secret Seven or The Enchanted Forest or nine-thousand other titles. In fact, my ENTIRE reason to learn english was in sixth grade when a girl gave me a copy of Famous Five and I wanted to impress her by showing my literary side.
Man in Rubber Suit, Soccer and Crime Solving Kids. Ladies and Gentlemen, my childhood.
COMMENTS
sven | October 05, 2004
ultraman was pretty ultracool wasnt he.... he even got me to wear bicycle shorts so i can wear spandex too. on second thought, ultraman was evil. THANKS FOR GETTING ME BEAT UP ULTRAMAN!!!!!
Umar | October 07, 2004
It was QTV, not Doha TV... I grew up in Qatar too, 1986-1995, and I remember all the Japanese cartoons dubbed into Arabic... Captain Majid was great...
sepoy | October 07, 2004
umar: We left Qatar in '83 or '84. I am sure they kept it in re-runs until '95. I remember they would have 5 HOURS of gents sitting in a circle chatting with one cartoon plus the wacky news. Damn Qatar TV. Of course, now they have al-Jazeera and are all cool and stuff.
mohamed | March 20, 2006
i love ultraman