Why do I miss Japan?

Found an excellent video at dannychoo.com that nicely encapsulates a couple of the reasons I loved that place.

Yes, that guy in the plastic outfit is just cruising around Tokyo, looking for places to dance. On it's own, that'd be pretty entertaining. But he's done it often enough that lower-level celebrities want to dance with him.
But look at the people going by. This seems to be taking place around midafternoon, and no one passing by is even slowing down. Oh, sure, a crowd gathers to takehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif some pictures once they're in a giant white box. Otherwise, though, it's just business as usual. Salarymen go to work, ko-gals ditch school to hang out somewhere, and a guy in plastic armor tries to bust a move for no reason other than he feels like it. And no one gives him any grief for it.
Hell, other times they join in.

Tokyo Dance Trooper at dannychoo.com

update: bonus video dancing with the dark lord of the Sith. Amazingly, they don't try to freak any of the people who dance between them. Some things can remain pure. Sorta.

Perhaps a clarification is in order...

That last post has been worrying me for a bit, and I feel like I should clarify. I do believe that white Americans, as individuals, are just as valid and valuable as any other human being. 1

Honestly, I grew up amongst them, went to their schools, and learned their ways as if they were my own. Honestly, I wouldn't mind at all if my sister married one. Hell, some of my best friends are white Americans. One on one, they can be good people.

But perhaps the problem is that I have similar reactions to most groupings of people: alternating between disgust, fright, pity, and outrage. Maybe it's just because they're the ones I see most often in the media that I tend to associate them with those negative feelings.

Rest assured, white Americans, I don't hate you personally. Singularly you're simply swell. It's you as a group I don't care so much for. The humans, that is. But I'm sure I'll learn to live with you, just as you seem to have tried to live with me. It's a simple dream, but a good one, I think.


1 That is, valued at approximately $23,260 when reduced to component organs and tissues or $14,515 as a single unit still suitable for labor, recreation or artistic display.

God damn it

Not many people I've met seem to embrace the idea of racism. Most people I've met who were raised sometime after 1930 or so seem to be more or less comfortable with the idea that it's not really acceptable to pre-judge people based on their skin color. They may not agree, but in general, they seem to get that most of the other people they have to live with are going to act that way.

In general, I agree.

But then I see something like this.


Just a couple of people trying to have a little fun at their wedding, no big deal. So why can't I get past the fact that all I'm seeing is a bunch of privileged white Americans pretending to dance like Negroes and laughing their asses off? Why can't I laugh at his spastic attempts at rhythm? Shouldn't it be funny that the song is about liking a black woman with a big butt, and this guy seems so enthusiastic about a nondescript white woman with no ass at all? The fact that they went on Ellen Degeneres' show to recreate this should just be something to smile over, but I can't. And when I see all the copycat videos posted with other happy white couples doing the same thing, I can taste bile and blood in my throat.

Why the hell can't I laugh this piece of stupidity off?

It is capital-A Art

Jim Woodring, artist and illustrator of, among other things, the ever-astounding Frank, has an illustration blog. Sometimes it is dreamlike, sometimes bewildering, and other times it is simply inspiring.

The Woodring Monitor

Chemicals, chemicals, non-franchise chemicals!

Now that I'm back amongst the ranks of the employed, I'm going to have to re-state my support for coffee. A legal, socially acceptable stimulant, it's sometimes the only thing that keeps me upright and functional. Now, the shaved apes I have to work with may be happy drinking cup after cup of instant Nescafe all day, but this particular simian needs something a little bit better. Yes, there are two Starbucks and one Costa on my way to work, but I like options. Besides, if I've learned nothing else from the films of Sylvester Stallone, it's that you should support the little guy, the unlikely artist with something to say, the underdog, the heavily armed veteran and the arm-wrestling-truck-driving single father.

Hmm. Seem to have lost the track there. Anyway, if you'd like to find a non-Starbucks coffee nearby, try Delocator.com (or Delocator.ca or Delocator.org.uk, depending on where you're aiming to go) for a postal/zip code search of independently owned coffee shops and tea parlors and such.

(Thanks for the heads up, Secret Agent K!)

Lowering the bar for higher education

It's a dark day for edumacation in Great Britain. In a move to improve the numbers of people holding qualifications, the UK has announced that they'll certify certain McDonald's management courses as being equivalent to A-levels, which will be something roughly equivalent to AP credit towards getting something like diplomas or associates degrees.

And to make things worse, an otherwise unremarkable university that has not yet lost its accredited status has hired a shiftless, foul-mouthed foreigner to teach a study skills and language improvement class to other foreign students who lack the language skills and the motivation to make it at the university level.

Oh, the irony gets thick sometimes!

Seriously, who cares about this sort of thing?

Should anyone at all care about the fact that some jerk running for congress had his face put on a thinner body for a campaign photo? It's just a little bit of advertising sent to voters to present an image of himself, which obviously has no bearing on his policies, right? And the fact that the people putting his ad together felt they were doing him a favor by making him look better than he may actually look in real life doesn't really matter, does it? And since the people are clearly too smart to care about anything other than the real issues of the day, there's no reason to give a damn about any of this, is there? The truthiness will come through in the end.


Incidentally, doesn't democracy rely on an informed populace to function? No? Sorry, I must have been thinking of something else. I, for one, welcome our new, composite-imaged leaders. Long may their photoshopped visages shine.

Keep on keepin' on

Going back to work soon. Edumactin' them thar ex-changed students. Yeah, the foul-mouthed Yank foreigner complaining about the quality of instruction is being hired to teach at that self-same institution. Not quite the blind leading the blind, but somewhere in the neighborhood. Maybe "the belligerent lecturing the apathetic" or "the surly leading the indifferent".

Anyway, been trying to get some fictional-type writing done. I figure I've already got half-empty bottles scattered around my desk, a big-ass stack of books to read that no one else seems interested in, and I can use "synecdoche" in a sentence. What else do I need besides a snooty portrait for the back of my book, a felt-tip pen to autograph with, and some Hollywood type to arrange an option deal that will linger in development hell forever and ever?

I mean, besides a plot and characters, and maybe another 90,000 words or so?

Happy 2008 y'all. I'll be back to bitching about stuff soon.

What is stupidity alternative to?

Did I say something about optimism?
Forget it. These jokers are selling a new t-shirt that's been pre-torn to make it look like an old t-shirt. It doesn't come with any sort of cool logo, hipster design, or even a retro iron-on. It's just a frayed t-shirt that costs forty dollars.

Forty god-damned dollars for a frayed t-shirt.

Anyone that would pay that, even in devalued 2007 money, is a fucking idiot. And I don't care how alternative your stubble is.

What's that emotion that's lower than scorn, but not as gentle as pity? That's what I feel for the humans. Every last one of us.

Geek Tagging?

You ever seen one of those big-ass ads projected onto a wall or something? They kind of suck, don't they? Sure would be good if someone could work out a way to do something about it.

Something like this.

Every now and then I start to feel a little bit optimistic about humans. Usually somewhere around beer number four.

[link courtesy Graffiti Research Lab]