Blow Your Nose for Peace

I attended yesterday's (2 May 2010) anti-nuke demonstration in Manhattan, at which the Japanese contingent out-numbered all others by three or four to one. Some of the Japanese were handing out small packets of facial tissue, like this:

I can't read Japanese, but I recognize the number 9 when I see it. In this context that means Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, the constitution imposed on them after WWII. Article 9 prohibits the state from waging war. Perhaps the Japanese are telling us that the U.S. Constitution needs a similar article? Here's the other side of the pack of tissue:

. . . where you found this insert:

The Hibakusha are the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Peace Now! - First Mix

Sakaki Rides a Dolphin in the New Savanna

Hey kids! I've set up a new blog, just around the corner. It's called New Savanna. And it's got photos and writing AND, a longish piece about a dolphin ride that I couldn't post at That Other Place. It's got about 10 seconds or so in Azumanga Daioh, one of the cutest anime series ever (for tweeners, I suppose).

Testing 1 2 3

Nina Paley is the creator of Mimi & Eunice and is releasing them using a copyleft license.

All Hail 3Tops-san

Ashes to ashes

Paint to paint

Where 3Tops was

Now 3Tops ain't

this video rocks!

Flobots - Handlebars

Holy GNF Batman!

Seen on Czech TV:



The NYTimes has an article about these pranksters.

Home Movies Meets WAAGNFNP?

You decide!



In honor of Oaktown Girl's second Mostly Harmless post!

Playoffs: AFC/NFC Championship Games

Because everybody has a right to my opinion (optional quickie pre-requisite reading is here.)

Yes, I'm bringing the hate to the new england patriots (small case letters intentional sign of disrespect). Anyone who wants to get up on their high horse and preach about how we should all just enjoy watching the "marvel" that is the 2007-8 patriots can kiss my Black ass. (So pucker up, fools!)

But praise Gojira, I'm not going to spend time here listing all the reasons I hate the pats. Let's talk about some other stuff.

1. Brett Favre - Now, you might think I'd dislike Favre simply because all the hype he gets could indeed make one nauseous. But oddly enough, it doesn't bother me too much. Yes, the yearly "is he or isn't he" retirement drama gets tedious, but in general, I'm cool with the guy. That's mostly because to my knowledge he hadn't said or done anything particularly offensive or stupid.

2. New York Giants - It's rare indeed that I'm ever cheering for a New York team, but damn if I wasn't cheering my butt off for them last week to beat Dallas. (I'm not a New York hater, just a yankee hater). Dallas hasn't been good enough in several years to be "bring the hate" worthy, but now they have enough hate-worthy elements about them to makes watching them lose fun again. And last week was a crushing loss for Dallas. Tony Romo is now 0-for2 in the playoffs. As for head coach Wade Phillips? Please. That dude's always been a joke.

3. Colts - I find the Colts to be a very likable team, and had believed them to be the best hope for stopping the patriots. What the hell happened? Ugly, ugly, ugly loss to San Diego. Damn, even if they had managed to win, they were playing so badly, new england would have stomped the shit out 'em. Pitiful. Just pitiful.

4. San Diego - Well, it was a Pyhrric victory against the Colts. So now with injuries severely limiting if their QB and star running back Ladainian Tomlinson, an upset may take nothing less than all the curses Lord Astaroth can heap upon new england (and boy are they deserving of some fierce interrogation!), as well as the divine intervention of Gojira herself.

The patriots don't turn the ball over much, and it's very frustrating. I'd love to see them get a whole season's worth of turnovers in one game tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, in the Super Bowl. No, I'll never stop dreaming.

5. Ladanian Tomlinson - have you ever just stopped and taken in the name "Ladainian"? If you move beyond the sheer uniqueness of it (or "weirdness" if you feel that way), you'll notice it's a truly lovely sounding name. Elegant, yet stong. Rolls off the tongue like it's royalty or something. Say it a few times. Ladainian.
Mmmm.

6. Cheering Squad - Obviously I'm cheering for San Diego. Well, to be accurate, it's more like "praying for a miracle" than actual cheering. As for the NFC, I'd just like to see a good, competitive, entertaining game. I'll be watching from Ministry of Justice HQ, where the high temperature is supposed to be 51 degrees. High temp in Green Bay is predicted at 11 degrees. Game time temp could be as low as 1 degree, with a wind chill factor of Sweet Lord Astaroth!

Time to Unleash the Awesome Power of Mottainai

Girls still not better. Must up ante. They're big fans of Mottainai Obaasan, this grandmother in a children's book who goes around telling the kids not to waste anything. Turns out there's an NGO called Mottainai, whose official theme song didn't pass the musume test. But here are two videos on the same theme that did, the first a little bit country and the second a little bit hip hop.





Maybe together they can lend extra power to the girls' immune systems!

Fishbone, Official Band of the WAAGNFNP...and Barack Obama?

We've known for a long time that Fishbone is the official band of the We Are All Giant Nuclear Fireball Party:



But now I'm hoping that Barack Obama is taking a page out of their songbook. "Change," a beautiful acoustic number that closes their brilliant album Truth and Soul, could well be the Obama campaign's theme song. Unfortunately, it's not on teh U2bes, so the closest I could get for non-fans (in theme if not in style) is "Sunless Saturday":



Here's hoping Obama shows a bit of Fishbone's passion, range, versatility, and ability to bring together multiple traditions and audiences in his campaign. (For the record, I'm still torn between him and Edwards in NY's February 5th primary, but seriously, some Obama supporter had better put something up on YouTube soon with "Change" as the background music.)

[Update 1 (8/29/08, 12:27 pm): Hey, it took about 7 months, but someone did it! With this kind of rapid response from Obama's supporters, he should be President...in 2016!]

And a Very Disney vs. Anime Hanukkah, Too!

Yeah, yeah, I know Hanukkah came early this year, but, please, it's a small-time festival of lights that got an undeserved promotion in the U.S. So which makes the South Park Dreidel song funnier, Disney or Ouran High School Host Club?





Special Christmas WAAGNFNP bonus clip: Full Metal Alchemist x Weird Al Yankovic's "Christmas at Ground Zero" AMV....



And speaking of Full Metal Alchemist, here's one of the few anime versions of Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song":

Heeeee's Baaaaaa-ack! (Or Should that Be, "Heeee-ere's JP!"?)

A warm welcome back to JP Stormcrow! Last I saw him, he was brightening another recent installation of Berube golf course architecture with the following diamond in the rough:

[D’Souza’s] most recent book*, however, seems to have given some of his comrades second thoughts.

Don’t go fucking with my Grand Unifying Theory of Wingnut Mixed Political Metaphors dude! It requires Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism, D’Souza’s Enemy at Home and your BFF’s “Discover the Network” to retain sufficient nutter street cred to support the emerging understanding of 9/11 as collateral damage from a doctrinal squabble between the Liberal Fascist Mensheviks and the Islamofascist Bolsheviks over how to best achieve the Fascist Internationale.

So don’t start. I swear I’ll go over to that uppity little blog of yours and retroactively shut it down like a year ago and make comment threads begin to disappear one at a time.

*As Dave Meier points out, MB is actually referring to his book before last. His latest is might as well be titled Atheistic Creedism.

JP Stormcrow: the gift that keeps on giving. Don't be a stranger, dude!

3Tops Declares Winter Festival Season is OPEN

Let there be rejoicing in WAAGNFNP land!



Looking for signs in the East:



No train on the tracks:

The Collected Adventures of Sparkychan & Gojochan (Thus Far)

Well, here it is, the first book of The Collected Adventures of Sparkychan and Gojochan (Thus Far), by Uncle Bill Benzon.

July 9: For onechan [in response to this and that]
July 10: The discussion continues
July 11: Onechan's Adventure [in response to this]
July 12: Where's Onechan? and Calling Onechan! Calling Onechan!
July 14: Help is on the way and There They Are! Yippieeee! [in response to this]
July 17: Onechan's Choice
July 19: Calling all kidz! Calling all kidz! [in response to this]
July 23: Sigh
July 28: Catch you later alligator
August 1: Where's the bunny rabbit?
August 3: Onechan Tells a Story
August 11: The Little Worm from Kansas
August 14: Twas brillig
August 16: Sparkychan & Gojochan Adventure Time Mystery Theatre
November 20: i had a dream

Without giving away too much, our intrepid pair end up in Dunkirk! Literally. The girls are still celebrating. Sparkychan is getting rides on the girls' toy baby stroller while onechan cradles Gojochan in one arm until imoto says "itai" enough to prompt me to intervene and force onechan to give Gojochan back to imoto. For more updates, see the comments on the last post in Book I. A big "arigato gozaimasu" to Uncle Bill from onechan and imoto!

They diddled and fiddled while the world burned

another message from the revolutionary vanguard, who notes that the diaphanous tall building in the middle is being constructed by donald "you're fired" trump. lots of diddlin' & fiddlin' going on.

Revolutionary Sunday: Secret Plans of the Vanguard

And this is where those plans are being incubated and hatched:

pre-historic golf

For all you golfers and WAAGNFNP loyalists here's proof that prehistoric man played golf long before he watched TV:



And here he is, doin' the Tiger under the watchful eye of the ultimate ur-golfer:

Zutto Zutto Tomodachi; and, The Collected Adventures of Sparkychan and Gojochan (Thus Far)

Cross-posted at Citizen of Somewhere Else

Has a better ring to it than "best friends 4evah," right? Well, it has about the same meaning. It's a line from the song onechan and her friends sang at the graduation ceremony for the older kids in her yochien this past spring. Since we're leaving Fukuoka before she can get to take part in a similar ceremony herself--in fact, we've already spent a full day in Chiba--I'm taking a break tonight from LPGA blogging to convey a big "sayonara" to all the Fukuoka friends she's leaving.

Maybe their parents can read them the Collected Adventures of Sparkychan and Gojochan (Thus Far), courtesy of Uncle Bill Benzon, and leave a comment or three here for him and onechan....

July 9: For onechan [in response to this and that]
July 10: The discussion continues
July 11: Onechan's Adventure [in response to this]
July 12: Where's Onechan? and Calling Onechan! Calling Onechan!
July 14: Help is on the way and There They Are! Yippieeee! [in response to this]
July 17: Onechan's Choice
July 19: Calling all kidz! Calling all kidz! [in response to this]
July 23: Sigh
July 28: Catch you later alligator
August 1: Where's the bunny rabbit?

[Update (8/3/07): New one--Onechan Tells a Stpry]

[Update (8/11/07): Another new one--The Little Worm from Kansas]

[Update (8/14/07): And another--Twas brillig]

[Update (8/16/07): And yet another--Sparkychan & Gojochan Adventure Time Mystery Theatre]

[Update (8/21/07): Check the comments on the last installment (thus far) for onechan's and imoto's immediate reactions to Sparkychan and Gojochan showing up in Dunkirk!]

Berube Mayoral Campaign Kicks Off with Analogy Contest

Cross-posted at Citizen of Somewhere Else.

Because it's our last Friday in Fukuoka (for this year, that is) and we have it on good authority that "analogies are mostly the refuge of the simple-minded," I hereby announce that the Official Michael Berube Campaign for Mayor of Blogoramaville is leading off with an analogy contest. Just fill in the blanks on any or all of the following in comments!

1. Michael Berube:[x=Republican Presidential Candidate]::a:b
2. Michael Berube:[y=Possible Mayoral Competitor]::c:d
3. Michael Berube:[z=Possible Running Mate]::e:f
4. Michael Berube:g::h:i

And remember to keep it simple, stupid. No similes or metaphors allowed.