Author Archive
Great interview with Tokyo Vice writer Jake Adelstein
Boing Boing’s Lisa Katayama posted part one of an interview with badass reporter Jake Adelstein (Tokyo Vice), who is equal parts Hunter S. Thompson and Bunta Sugawara.
In April 2008, I was trying to figure out how Goto knew that I was writing a book about his liver transplant. There was a yakuza real estate broker; [...]
Joining a Fan Club!
Two of my favorite bands – Jellyfish, with their song ‘Joining a Fan Club’, and the cover by Japanese pop-rock duo Puffy (or Puffy Amiyumi, if you prefer).
The sweet sounds of victory…
If this doesn’t make you grin, you clearly need more quality time with your Playstation.
(Linkage from Boing Boing)
Making mountains out of molehills? Avatar-branded rocks stir controversy in China
Some context, in case you haven’t been paying attention…
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So – predictably, things haven’t gone quite as planned. In addition to the usual kvetching about the importation of Western popular culture, there is also a competing interest in Huangshan who claims that Cameron namechecked their [...]
South Korean child dies as parents abandon it to raise digital one
Okay – man…I’ll admit to occasionally avoiding the wife and kids to hit up a little Mass Effect 2 once in a while, but godalmighty. After reading about this South Korean couple who ditched their 3-month-old to raise an imaginary one, resulting in said child’s demise, I feel like Dad of the Year.
An autopsy showed [...]
James Cameron moving ahead on film adaptation of discredited A-Bomb book
James Cameron still plans to film an adaptation of Charles Pellegrino’s not-quite published Hiroshima tome Last Train from Hiroshima despite allegations that Pellegrino manufactured several of the accounts contained in the narrative. Of course, this brings to mind the wholesale fabrication of James Frey’s ‘memoir’ A Million Little Pieces (and the subsequent duping of Oprah [...]
Kingdom of the Little People theme park raises awareness for Chinese dwarfs
Okay…true story.
A few years ago I took my son to the Hamilton County fair here in Cincinnati, Ohio. I’m not a big county fair guy, but my dad thought it would be entertaining. And it was, despite having to repeatedly curb my dad’s instinct for taking my three-year-old son on the various deathtrap rides that [...]
Off-Topic: ‘Does that zombie have pants?’
Last week I took advantage of Target’s price-drop on Left4Dead 2 – in case you’re one of the few who haven’t picked it up, I heartily recommend it. One of the unexpected benefits of this purchase, aside from lots of awesome zombie-slayage, is that it has subsequently led to some really awesome father/son videogame bonding.
Now [...]
Final Fantasy XIII: Just what is a ‘role-playing game’?
Non-Japanese reviews for SquareEnix’s Final Fantasy XIII are trickling in, and it seems there’s a disconnect between what Japanese gamers and Western gamers expect from their RPG’s…so much so, that FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama has weighed-in on the issue:
“We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view,” says [...]
Sometimes Memory Lane is an alley best avoided: Pink Lady and Jeff
Gaze upon the horror that is Pink Lady, a short-lived variety program that aired in 1980 starring Japanese singing duo Pink Lady (hence the title) and co-host (and occasional translator) Jeff Altman. Pink Lady are entertaining in a post-70’s kitschy sort of way, but Altman’s jokes are about as entertaining as a colostomy bag souffle.
Hughes Brothers to tackle live-action ‘Akira’
Aint-It-Cool-News reports that directing duo the Hughes Brothers have signed on to bring Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira to the silver screen. I can’t say I’m a fan – From Hell was an abomination, but only because they jettisoned all the cool mystical stuff that made the original comic so amazing. In all fairness, I can’t see [...]
Daniel Dae Kim is Chin Ho
Hrm – I didn’t even know that CBS was prepping a Hawaii Five-O remake, but I’m a huge Lost fan so hearing that Daniel Dae Kim (who plays Jin on said show) is booked to replace the departed Kam Fong is a big plus.
Growing up in the 70’s, I watched a fair amount of Hawaii [...]
Help save Giant Robot magazine!
Way back in 1999 or so, a year or two out of college, I started poking around with website design – nothing major, just picking up a little HTML here and there and knocking together a string of really forgettable crap sites that hopefully will never be found on Archive.org’s Wayback Machine. After a year [...]
Chinese woman to undergo Alba-fication surgery; Jessica Alba horrified
Actress Jessica Alba has expressed doubts about a Chinese woman’s decision to alter her appearance to mimc Alba in a bid to impress a former lover.
“I think you should never have to change yourself like that,” Alba said. “If somebody loves you, they’ll love you no matter what.”
Apparently the woman’s ex-boyfriend was obsessed with Ms. [...]
James Cameron vs. China: The Na’vi are Tibetans?
Newsweek speculates that China’s uncertainty (wait – didn’t they name a mountain range after the movie?) about Avatar has less to do with its usurpation of local cinema fare (namely a recent Confucius biopic starring Chow Yun-Fat) and more to do with uncomfortable parallels between the Na’vi and Earth’s Tibetans, who are not exactly blue [...]
