29 January, 2005

Dad with a big fish

My father got a big fish from a customer who likes fishing yesterday. "Supergiant, isn't it" he said at the camera. The fish was served to yesterday's guests at Kiccho.

28 January, 2005

It's time to show off - a story of eBoy in Berlin

One day I happned to see again guys of eBoy, which is Berlin-based pixel art group on a Japanese magazine, called Popeye. In this issue, Popeye offers a special T-shirt designed by Paul Smith and eBoy to its 800 subscribers. Looks cool, so I entered for it, of course.

I don't know to what extent eBoy is popular in Japan. But let's assume that eboy is getting bigger in Japan. Then, if so, maybe it can be time to show off my story related to eBoy. To tell the truth, I have met guys of eBoy before. This is why I wrote "again" at the beginning.

Last November I went to Berlin. I had been interested in their artwork, and therefore, I tried to contact eBoy to ask if I could visit their office. I didn't expect much I would get an answer from them. But I did receive a mail saying "sure!". When I visited, there were fortunately all members of eBoy, including Peter Stemmler who normally working in New York. They're very nice and friendly despite being busy. And I left there with many kinds of gifts - postcards, autographs and an T-shirt. Oh I might have had a cake, a photo (see the right photo) reminds me... I was quite pulsated, and so don't remember what I was doing. The only thing I remember is that I was talking about boring stuff but they were very nice, though.

Anyway, this is a story I wanted to tell you (or show off). I've been waiting for this opportunity. Hope you enjoyed... I know this is boring.

» eBoy - browse/basic_foto/paulsmith

» Popeye

27 January, 2005

Björk's new video

Again, Björk surprises us. From last year's groundbreaking album, Medúlla, Triumph of a Heart will be released as a single. Along with the single release, she has created its music video, which is supercool.

In the video, Björk lives with her partner, but he is a cat. And one day, they had an argument or boredom. Don't know exactly what happened from the video. Then Björk leaves home and goes to a small bar in a town. After making a racket there, she get's too drunk to walk and falls down, then gets a scrape on her forehead. This scene, really, is similar to what I was doing in Cardiff and her dynamic slip reminds me of myself...

This video is produced by Spike Jonze, who has also done Björk's It's Oh So Quiet. The video of It's Oh So Quiet is one of the best ones and is also said that it motivates Björk to undertake a heroine of Dancer in the Dark, Cannes' Palme d'Or winning film.

But I saw something strange at the end of the video. After Björk comes back home from last night's party, she kisses the cat and makes up. Then suddenly the cat becomes as big as her, and then starts to dance together. This scene looks as cheap as 80's SF movies. There should have been CG technology to make it look better. Don't know. Spike Jonze might have done so on purpose. But that cat-dancing scene was enough shocking to wipe my memory from the first half of the video. What do you think? See and judge.

» Björk | The Premiere of Triumph of a Heart

25 January, 2005

Sin City

Frank Miller's Sin City will be shown in April 2005 in America. As far as I saw its trailer, this will be great. I hope the film will come to Japan.

» Apple | Trailers | Sin City

24 January, 2005

Tsunami Relief Cardiff

After I left Cardiff, somehow, many things are happening there. Don't know. Japanese football player, Junich Inamoto, is one. He now belongs to Cardiff. I've missed it and am missing it now.

The other is this tsunami relief concert in Cardiff. If I still were in Cardiff, of course, I would have gone to the concert. Look at its lineup. Eric Clapton, Manic Street Preachers, Charlotte Church, Keane, Embrace, Craig David, etc. Umm, personally, I wanted to see Badly Drawn Boy and Snow Patrol.

Moreover, here is more news, which can makes me envy. Travis are confirmed to play at a Tsunami concert in Glasgow, Scotland. The concert will be hold on the 19th of February and includes Franz Ferdinand, Idlewild and others. Each of them is my favourite band.

I kept saying I envy those who can go to the concert, but this is at the simplest level and I understand this is for the victims of the tsunami disaster. I shouldn't have said like that and should have been stupid, but it is true that I hope this will help to raise money for the victims.

According to BBC, the concert was the biggest since Live Aid 20 years ago and raised £1.25 million on the night.

» BBC Wales | Tsunami Relief Cardiff
- you can watch streaming videos of the concert

» Travisonline | Travis to play Tsunami Aid Concert

19 January, 2005

Little Britain Live

Again about my favourite, Little Britain. Matt Lucas and David Walliams are going to go on Little Britain Live tour all over the UK this autumn. It is said that 100,000 tickets were sold in just only 6 hours. It sounds like some pop stars. They're men of the moment and I'm going to miss it...

» www.littlebritain.info

18 January, 2005

Where is the cheese?

I'm looking for a cheese called "Jarlsberg" which is from Norway. Since I ate it in Norway, I've been addicted to it. I was able to buy it at Tesco in Britain. But I can't find it in Japan. I might find it, maybe in Tokyo. But I'm not living there but in a bit far from Tokyo. So, I've check whether there is any shop selling it online. I could find one. But it sells the cheese at 1,800yen(9GBP)! And I have to pay for delivery cost, which is 1,000 yen (5GBP). It's too much for a piece of cheese. I'll have to go to Tokyo to find it.

» TINE (Norwegian cheese company)

16 January, 2005

Jesus Christ

Shall I say "Jesus Christ" after having read this article, sir?

» The New York Times | Detainees Describe Abuses by Guard in Iraq Prison
12 January 2005
By Kate Zernike

14 January, 2005

Little Britain

Before I left the UK, I bought a DVD of BBC comedy "Little Britain". Although I didn't see its TV series, I've got all involved in the DVD and am longing to see its new series, which is now on TV. Yes, if I regret having left Britain, it'll be attributed to the fact that the new series of the comedy is on TV and I can't see it.

There are funny characters like Lou and Andy, Vicky Pollard and Marjorie Dawes. Moreover, a stage hyponotist who cannot hypnotise, a transvestite who overacts a lady, and a secretary who loves the prime minister...

Every episode features a certain town somewhere in Britain. Therefore, each of those characters speaks a strong accent. For example, a mysterious Scottish hotelier, Ray McClooney, of course, has a strong Scottish accent. What I'm really impressed is two comedians, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who play all main funny characters, are skillful to be able to imitate any type of English accents. If this programme was on TV when I was studying phonetics, I might have decided to pursue a degree in it in Britain, not journalism.

Today's article is about this comedy. Three signs of the Walsh village featured in the comedy have been stolen. This is Llanddewi-Brefi in Ceredigion where Little Britain's popular character, Daffyd - the only gay in the village - lives. BBC says;

Since it crossed over from being a cult series to a mainstream hit, fans of the TV comedy have been having their photographs taken next to the road signs. But some may have gone further - with three of the signs stolen in recent months.

Some fans may have gone further...

» BBC News | Wales | Little Britain village seeks help
12 January 2005

» BBC Comedy | Little Britain

13 January, 2005

My mother getting equipped with Microsoft

My mother doesn't know I'm writing this. She doesn't know about a computer, Internet and the Apple logo. But, she's been interested in learning a PC.

When I was studying in the UK, I often imagined how great if my mum could use a PC. It'd have been definitely easier to communicate, especially when I have to explain something too complicated or advanced for a middle-aged lady. But anyway, I'm back where every single morning I face her. No need to communicate via e-mails.

On the contrary, she thinks it's a good chance for herself to start a PC, because she can ask me how to use it. As soon as I came back, she grabbed me and then her computer lesson began. She uses my old notebook PC.

I realised it's not easy to explain something that I take for granted. Sit in front of a laptop, open it, switch it on, open IE, jump to hotmail, type my ID and password, check an e-mail from my friend, and ... These are far too advanced for her. First of all, she didn't know how to switch on. And she was about to break her nail to open up the notebook.

Even though she knows much about negative aspects of PCs and Internet. Like Internet crimes, computer viruses and so on. I suppose, each of them is just what she happened to overhear from TV. She doesn't know the true meaning of them...

Now her long winding journey has just begun. She's practicing typing. Yes, she can't type. I think she's opened a pandra's box. Wish she will have mastered a PC, when I go somewhere abroad again.

13 January, 2005

BBC comes back

BBC has been back in my room. English started flowing again here. Before I went to Britain, I used to watch the BBC World by satellite for practicing English. Umm, I can see improvement in my listening skill. I can understand what they're saying. Good good. Now listening to BBC, I realise, although I knew this, I love British English after all.

By the way, two things about the Olympics from BBC news;
Greece paid nearly $12 billion for last year's massive sport event. It's said to be almost double the original estimate. And, to my surprise, every single Greek was to have paid $250 for it! Moreover, not surprisingly, the stadiums that were built for the game are not used. This happened in Nagano which hosted the winter Olympics. Ummm.

The other one is that Kenya is going to bid for the right to host the 2016 Olympics. Sounds very exciting.

No African country has ever staged an Olympics and only four nations outside Europe and North America have ever won the right to do so.

Four nations. Are they, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney and Beijing? I want to see the Olympics being held in Africa. Don't know to what extent Kenya is serious about it and Kenyan economy is going well. But look at South Africa. It will host the 2010 World Cup. I know, South Africa is, kind of, exceptional. But the Olympics can happen Kenya. This is really exciting news.

» BBC Sport | Kenya in shock bid for 2016 Games
12 January, 2005

7 January, 2005

Haves and have-nots

What happened in the Indian Ocean is the worst earthquake disaster ever in history. As a citizen of one of the world's most earthquake-prone nations, this does matter to me. There are lots of earthquakes in Japan. It's been only two weeks since I came back to Japan. But I've already experienced two earthquakes. Scary.

I came across an article, in the BBC website, about quake and tsunami measures in Japan. In this article, writer Jamie Miyazaki says;

Underpinning this cutting-edge warning system are strict new building laws to protect against tsunamis and quakes, and good disaster planning that have so far kept Japanese casualties from such natural disasters low for such a vulnerable nation.

However, he adds, "the system comes with a price-tag - around US$20m a year." As he says, of course, this is too expensive to poorer nations - like the countries affected by the quake. And he concludes;

With some underwater quakes in Japan occurring just a few kilometres offshore, it could take only five minutes for tsunamis to hit land. That would make even Japan's cutting-edge system effectively useless, without further advances.

Even though Japan spends enormous money in the tsunami/quake system, terrible power of nature can be surpass Japan's technology. I think we know power of nature is immense. But we need to make efforts to minimize the damage. Some say if the countries, which have incured massive damage in this quake, had any system, the things would have been much better. But they don't have money. Where can they find money to allocate such an invisible monster? Before it, there are so many problems to be solved.

This makes me think why poorer people (always) have to be vulnerable. Almost all problems on this planet we have to combat are related to them. AIDS, hunger, malnutrition, conflict, bla bla bla... How can haves deal with the gap between them and have-nots? Ummm, difficult.

» BBC News | How Japan handles tsunami threat
5 January 2005
By Jamie Miyazaki

5 January, 2005

A new place for innervision

Happy New Year!!

Oh, I started another thing, which is Blogger. I knew about it. I heard of it. I saw it often, in fact. But, I didn't try to start this Blogger, because I had so many things to be done and also wanted to create this kind of proper blog system by myself for my website. But I was busy, anyway.

Then, I kept writing something in English for my website and kept writing something in Japanese for Hatena, Japanese weblog community, for a while. But, the weblog for my site was getting mixed up with private stories and the site's announcements. That was I didn't like. In fact, my site, auspicious, started as an online gallery of my portfolio and photographs, along with the weblog. But no wonder, the weblog, which was thought to be a supporting role (at first in my mind), was the most regurally updated section and it was pretty personal. I wanted to separate it from other main sections such as my portfolio and photographs. Also, since I lost internet connection, the site including the weblog have been less often updated. Then, the weblog became a notice board for update information. Yes, that's good. It should be like that.

So, now I've got internet connection back. Where can I write something personal, private and irrelevant to my portfolio or web design? I think, the answer is Blogger, yes here. I don't want to write personal matters back in my website any longer. And it's the beggining of the year. Good time to begin something new.