Attack is the best from of defense

I reckon it’s time I got back to talking about Japan. To that end, today’s title is a t-shirt slogan I saw in a hip-aching second-hand clothing store in Daimyo today. I really need to start carrying my camera around more: I also hit up ‘Mandarake’, which is five floors of grimy photogenic second-hand otaku [...]

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McCain cries Yahoo

Reflections on the Sarah Palin “hacker” scandal: The incident is a gift to the Republican campaign, and one which they have slow-played masterfully. Most importantly, the fact that no juicy details have come of the hacking has been made glaring by omission. Anything that does come out will remain a less interesting discovery than the [...]

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Chicken heads

I’ve started some work for a local magazine here, which wants to expand its online operation. It’ll be a chance to see first-hand the thinking that goes on about internet issues from the perspective of media outlets in sharp commercial situations, such as an absolute dependence on relationships with local advertising concerns. I asked, among [...]

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“rethinking news priorities”

(From the Rocky Mountain News. Images link to original Twitter feed, and story via journalism.co.uk) There’s been a slew of interesting predictions for the newspaper and magazine industries in the last couple of days. Gawker sci-fi hub io9, obviously considering the future as a whole their territory, reported on ex-Conde Nast James Truman’s predictions for [...]

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The Pepsi test/kimochi warui

There is almost no Pepsi in Japan. It’s the sort of thing you don’t notice till someone points it out. But once they do, the absence is obvious. I had a great chat with my supervisor about media in the country today, and he spoke about the Pepsi test: “if you want to know about [...]

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In Ko

I’ve started a sister blog, for friends and family and anyone interested. It’s a more stream-of-consciousness account fo life in Japan. It will also hopefully be an account of my attempts to learn to play Go, one of the most abstract, simple and challenging games in the world. here goes nothing.

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A line will be drawn

Movie trailer voiceover actor Don LaFontaine has died. The link is a touching tribute by Ain’t It Cool. The man with the most heroic voice in recording history was, it turns out, also a witty and genuinely talented performer and writer, with a warm sense of irony about the endless cliches of his work. His [...]

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