Police want ban on using mobile phones while riding bicycles: a very sensible idea...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071227p2a00m0na014000c.html

Well, I'm happy to read the above article. This is about a report filed on Thursday that proposes banning cyclists from pedaling while: using a mobile phone; listening to music with headphones on; and randomly ringing the bell to avoid trouble with others. A very good idea i think. But even if this law is passed, how many policemen will strictly enforce this law? And how many people will even comply with the law?

I think it they should pass another law to go along with this one. Anyone talking on a cellphone, listening to music, or ringing their bell for no good reason should be SEVERELY BEATEN TO DEATH AND ANALLY RAPED WITH A BICYCLE PUMP. I don't know how many times I've been riding my bike, and some moron nearly crashes into me because he's got his head down, on his phone, not paying attention to where he's going. It happens to me on a daily basis almost. The other type of people I hate are the ones who are going through a red light and nearly cause an accident. Osaka has to be the worst place for bad motorists and cyclists in the world. Just driving my bike in one hour, I usually encounter 4 or 5 times where someone nearly causes a major accident because they're talking on their cellphone or their buried under their headphones and they can't hear what's going on.

Bottom line is this. If you're going to go out in a crowded public area, you have to be able to use all your senses and be aware of other people around you. So even if you're walking and listening to music, that's rude in my opinion.

Another proposed ban they were talking about not too long ago is walking on escalators. Now this one is just plain ridiculous. In Osaka, the rule is stand right, walk left. Easy, right? But no, there's always the idiot who doesn't get the program and stands on the left, blocking people who are trying to get by.

Well, apparently there have been a few cases of people getting pushed or shoved because they didn't comply with these simple rules. One woman said a guy shoved her kid out of the way saying something equivalent to "Get the fuck out of the way!" in Japanese. Well, in my opinion, he was a bit out of line, he should've said excuse me a few times first, then if she didn't move, push through by all means.

Anyway, people should fucking know better than to just stand on the escalator. Escalators were invented for a few reasons, 1. to save time and 2. to make it easier for the elderly who have a hard time climbing stairs. They were not meant for lazy assholes. So get the fuck out the way next time.

Now that we're on the subject of dangerous cyclists, let me address one of the most dangerous groups of all cyclists: Old People. I think there's more accidents caused by senile old farts who just don't know how to fuckin' drive because they're too old. Osaka's Obaachan are the absolute worst. They are a fucking menace to society. They go through red lights, they incessantly ring their bells at people, they always cut you off and never apologize and they pretty much think the whole road is theirs, ignoring every road rule in the book. I think if you're past 70 at least, you shouldn't be on a bicycle.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been discovering so much new metal recently that I decided to just talk about all of them in one post instead of individually reviewing them.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've recently been getting into the doom band Sunn O))) as well as a few other bands. After hearing a slew of Sunn O))) material in the past few weeks, i've still decided that the essential is still BLACK ONE. But all their releases seem to have something to draw me in. I haven't listened to WHITE 1 yet in depth, I've just skimmed it, and it sounds like it's worth diving into. I've already listened to WHITE 2 twice, and it's a good one, it's worth it just for the last track "Decay2". I have the Japanese 3-CD edition of this, and apparently, the 2nd and 3rd disc was originally released on Archive as a double disc set that was only sold at shows. Some people were reportedly paying 100 bucks for the original. Well, sadly, it's not that interesting actually, but Sunn O))) freaks would probably burn me at the stake for saying so. Anyway, enough about Sunn O))). I talked about them enough in my last post.

Let's move on to KHANATE, which features Stephen O'Malley from Sunn O))) on guitar, James Plotkin (Atomsmasher) on bass and electronics, Alan Dubin (O.L.D., Burning Witch) and Tim Wyskida (unknown to me until now). I think I like this band MORE than Sunn O))). This shit gets right under your skin and makes for quite a disturbing, uncomfortable listening experience. The vocals of Alan Dubin remind of an extremely pissed off Bon Scott (old AC/DC) spit through an assortment of effects to make it sound like a possessed, melting robot. The music itself is painfully slow and brutal, swallowing you in its' vast abyss of darkness and insanity. The closest thing to this I've heard to this kind of brutality is SWANS - Cop/Young God era or HENRY ROLLINS' Hard Volume. FOETUS - Thaw also comes to mind, so if you're into any of those albums, you'll love this. This is an entirely different beast of the doom genre, pretty much as far away from formula as you could get. These are not really "songs" in the conventional sense, but torture experiments that test the patience of even the most forgiving human beings. I've only got 2 of their CD's, I picked up THINGS VIRAL first, then their 1st self-titled CD. It's hard to pick which one I like better, but I think I'd have to say their first has been getting more play than THINGS VIRAL. I have yet to pick up their "EP" titled CAPTURE AND RELEASE (2 songs almost clocking in at 40 minutes is an EP!!??). The Japanese pressing includes a DVD, so I'm looking forward to getting that. I have the Japanese pressings of the 1ST and THINGS VIRAL and they both include a bonus disc with lots of alternate versions of tunes from both albums. So if you're sick and tired of the so-called "Nu-Metal" you might want to try these guys out. Buy it and throw a party, see how long it takes for the party to split after slapping this on.

The next release I'm gonna briefly review the new BORIS/MERZBOW live collaboration titled DOCK DREAM. This is not the 1st time these 2 giants have collaborated. There have been a number of releases as well as performances, most notably and recently, the brilliant SUN BAKED SNOW CAVE. I'm not gonna say much about this. Of course it's good, but is is it necessary? Hmmmm. Disc 1 is my personal favorite out of the 2 discs, containing more of their longer, more darker material mostly, with an awesome 35-minute version of FEEDBACKER, one of my favorite BORIS pieces. The 2nd disc contains more of their more shorter, rockin' out balls to the wall tracks off PINK, AKUMA NO UTA, another long track, from DRONEVIL and some other short ones. The choice of material is good, but I actually prefer the live material from the ARCHIVE series. Merzbow adds his sound nicely, not overdoing it. BORIS fans will be all over this of course, and likely there'll be about 10 different versions of it before the year closes out. The artwork and package, by Shizu (who I don't know) and Fangsanalsatan respectively is really amazing. This IS a good solid live album by 2 legends of noise/psych and I'm sure it will not disappoint fans of either band.

The Next CD is a split from 2 well-know doom bands, GOATSNAKE and BURNING WITCH (featuring Alan Dubin from KHANATE). This is actually getting pretty pretty hard to find, so I was lucky to find it. Burning Witch only put out a few 12" EP's, and couple splits, including this one with GOATSNAKE, the other split with ASVA, who I haven't checked out yet. but want to. Well, even though there are only 2 tracks on this split by Burning Witch, Dubin's vocals are pretty different than KHANATE. He uses more of a shrieky type voice with this band, whereas his vocals with KHANATE are far more angry and scary, with more effects and variation. The 2 tracks on here don't disappoint though, they're chunky as hell. The other 2 tracks by GOATSNAKE are good too, but i prefer the intensity and slightly more uncomfortable feeling of Burning Witch. GOATSNAKE sound very much like ST. VITUS, and it's not surprising since one of the tracks is actually a St. Vitus cover song. Definitely worth picking up, but not worth the collector prices it's going for on ebay, which are anywhere from 30 bucks to 100 bucks.

On to the last band and CD I'll mention in this post. CULT OF LUNA's Somewhere along the highway. My friend recommended this to me a few weeks ago, so I decided to take a chance on it and pick it up after reading a few reviews of it. I gotta say, it's pretty amazing stuff. It really reminds of a cross between GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR and OLD MAN GLOOM, mixed with some other doom and prog rock influences. Apparently it was recorded in some fuckin' barn in the middle of nowhere in 7 days. It wasn't at all what i was expecting. Coming from Sweden, I was expecting it to be a much darker affair, washed in black metal synth and too much reverb, and overly silly vocals, but what i got was a beautiful, hypnotic affair with many surprises and just plain excellent songwriting, tight compositions with the right blend of heaviness and melody. Maybe this could quite possibly be a doom version of Dream Theater. Yes, it's that good, and I'm sure repeated listens will reap even more rewards. Not sure who this LUNA dude is though... I just like the music.

Sunn O))) - Black One

Black One. Fuckin' right it is. This is not mere black metal, my friends, this is a terrifying journey into outer reaches of hell without even the slightest glimpse of hope or light coming in to save you from it all. This is as cold and bleak as it gets. After the first couple of tracks, you'll be scared. After about half an hour as the sound has slowly enveloped you, it becomes emotionally damaging. Just picture a baby seal getting clubbed to death or a dog screeching as its skin is being slowly boiled off and you might get some picture of how this might sound. In the words of the immortal Pinhead from Hellraiser, this will TEEEAAARRR YOOUURR SOOOUULLL APAAAAAART!!!!

My first introduction to Sunn O))) was the collaboration with BORIS called ALTAR. That was good too, but by no means either band's best output. This was my first "real" introduction to Sunn O))) and I still think it's their best and if you only pick up one album by them, this should be it. So far, I've heard this, White 2 (which is also great), Flight of the Behemoth and Oracle. I've only listened to Flight of the Behemoth once and I think that one's gonna have to grow on me. This is not stuff to listen to breakfast to, so I doubt it'll be frequenting my CD player. It's more like one of those albums you dig out once every few months and revel in it's darkness and ponder about life itself. But Black One is different. Despite being as punishing as it is, there's also something about it that brings me back for repeated listenings quite often.

I haven't heard the Grimmrobe demos or White 1 yet, but I heard Grimmrobes is not really worth picking up so I'll probably leave that one.

I don't consider myself a big fan of doom, I just like a few of the bands. There are so many bands it's impossible to listen to everything, and I'm into so many more kinds of music. Anyway, if I listened to nothing but doom and black metal, I might start growing claws. But I've recently been getting into these guys, Khanate, Burning Witch, Boris, Beherit and a few other bands of this genre.

Also check out the recent BORIS/MERZBOW - Rock Dream, and KHANATE's "Things Viral" both of which I will probably review shortly.

SODOM - The Final Sign of Evil

Fuckin' rights!!! Sodom decided to revisit their early days on their latest album, The Final Sign Of Evil, which is a re-recording of the band's 1984 EP In The Sign Of Evil along with 8 more tracks that were originally written for what was supposed to be a full album, not just an EP. The full album was never released because their label at the time didn't give them the opportunity to finish it because they didn't like the 4 songs they heard, so they just released it as a 4-song EP. Shame shame shame.

Vocalist/bassist Tom Angelripper even brought back the band's original drummer Chris Dudek (Witchhunter) and guitarist Josef "Peppi" Dominic (Grave Violator) for this CD. The production on the album was done by the band's webmaster, I don't know why. But it sounds like it was recorded on a 4-track with bad gear back in 1984. It's truly raw, but also very effective. I love all the 80's thrash bands with horrible production. It sounds like mud, but that's how thrash was meant to sound, in my opinion. I'm so glad they didn't decide to make them sound modern, like most bands would.

The re-done songs from the original EP hold up very well, and are pretty much like the originals. The new material good stuff with some dirge-like tunes. Angelripper's harsh broken-glass vocals and the cheesy pitching effects are just like he used to use on "Evil" and "Obsessed by Cruelty".

If you're a Sodom fan or love 80's thrash in general, you'll definitely need this. Here's hoping they will also do a re-record of Obsessed by Cruelty.

Tourettes Guy!!!

I don't know if this guy is for real or not, but this is sure some funny (and at the same time, disturbing) stuff. I've heard that he WAS really diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome but he just fakes these videos to make people aware of Tourettes in hopes they will make a donation. This video is a compilation of the "best of", so if you wanna see everything, go to the site: http//www.tourettesguy.com. The site is actually down at the moment, but it should be up again soon.

Another thing I just learned is that he apparently died after being invloved in a bad car accident. He had been out of the hospital for a couple of days staying with a friend when he suffered some medical complications. He just passed away during the night.

Also, I heard that the dudes who run the Tourettesguy site be releasing all the videos along with one last new video in a high quality DVD format in memory of Danny. This DVD will be free to download, but you will also be able to purchase a physical copy. All proceeds from the DVD will go to Danny's family.

Here's a LINK to samples of his raging and swearing in case you wanna stick em in a song or something.

piss on you

I love this video. The Chapelle Show is pure genius.

BLOODCOUNT - Seconds

This is a triple disc set which captures both the quartet and quintet version of Bloodcount. I've finally had time to digest it so I guess I'm ready to review it. Listened to the discs twice, and the stand-out disc for me is the first one, which contains 3 lengthy compositions, SCRAP METAL, YES, DEAR and MR. JOHNSON. Great production, very clean, but yet not too polished. Michael Formanek shines on both discs, and the interplay between Tim and Chris Speed is magic.

The second live disc contains more bluesy groove-oriented compositions, and is actually quite accessible for Tim Berne. I'm a bit disappointed that Marc Ducret is only on the DVD and not the other CD's, but that's no biggie.

The DVD is a little disappointing in my opinion, it's badly shot and it gives me a fucking headache looking if I stare at it too long. It's too shaky in most places and there's way too many annoying close-ups. It's mostly b/w with some color sequences of the band running around Paris. There's a few places where it looks like very short clips of erotic movies were thrown in for good measure. Why, I don't know.I think I'll extract the audio and just listen to the music, which is awesome. Marc Ducret really fuckin' rips it up on this version on EYE CONTACT.

As always, great package design Steve Byram, this time not his usual scribblings and fuckery but a more minimalist Byram. Looks like he's been playing with Adobe Illustrator, gettin' more digital and shit on us.

More good news is that Bloodcount is going to tour with some new material, which means we may see some future Bloodcount releases. let's hope so. For now, we have a nice blast from the past to tide us over until the next Bloodcount meal...

Miles Davis Complete On The Corner

Jesus, there's just a ton of great sets coming out this month. Soon after I found out about the Glenn Gould 80-CD "complete" original jacket collection, I found out that Columbia/Legacy is laying yet another Miles Davis boxset on us, this time, THE COMPLETE ON THE CORNER sessions. Well, I've already read many good things and bad things about it.

Bad first. The price. They have it retailed at 140 U.S. dollars on Amazon. Fuck. Double FUCK. Is that necessary??? It's only 6 discs, so when you do the math, it's about 23 bucks a disc? C'mon.......... That's waaaaaaay too much. The next bummer which I read about is that it has the worst liner notes of any Miles Davis Box. The next bummer is that that it contains music already released. So really, there is not a great deal of new material. This collection SHOULD be called The Complete 'On The Corner' and 'Get Up With It' Sessions, because all the songs from that 1974 release are here, too. Even some stuff from Big Fun, is on here here, via the twenty-one minute epic, "Ife."

Nevertheless, I still want to get this set. Great design, by the look of the pictures I've seen already (as with all the Columbia/Legacy Miles boxes). I haven't seen it in stores yet though. I'm gonna wait for the price to drop however, or a good deal on ebay. By the way, this apparently THE LAST deluxe box that they will release, so I'm a little relieved at that. I'm always thinking "What are they gonna put out next??!!!" this is it, from this label anyway. i don't think THE CELLAR DOOR SESSIONS counted as a COLUMBIA/LEGACY release, because there's no number on the set. For example, The JACK JOHNSON set was number 7, ON THE CORNER is number 8. THE CELLAR DOOR SESSIONS was released between those boxes.

Sooooo, I don't have this set yet, but I am looking forward to getting it, at which time I'll try and review it here. I do own the original CD of ON THE CORNER, but I've never owned GET UP WITH IT, nor have I heard that one, so I can guess that I've heard about 30 to 40 % of the material that this set covers. I DO know that ON THE CORNER is considered by many to be the most controversial of his career, many calling it Miles "sell-out" album at the time of its' original release. I hardly think so. This album, in addition to Miles' other albums around the same period, was the blueprint for so-called "funk jazz" that followed it and continues to this day. If you want to hear Miles "sell-out", pick up Doo Bop", one of his worst albums, but still not that bad.

Glenn Gould Complete Original Jacket Collection

Holy Shit, I can't believe this is out. A pretty good description of it can be found here or check the Glenn Gould Foundation site for more information.

The only thing is, I don't see any mention of the CBC radio broadcasts, which is a pretty important part of his career. So, as good as this box looks, I'd like to know if it is truly "complete" or not. It's still a great looking collection at a pretty reasonable price. I wouldn't call myself a Gould fanatic, but this set just looks so yummy, and I'm a sucker for large expensive box sets, so I'll probably end up buying at some point, but I'm gonna wait for awhile for a sale or a price drop. Probably in a few months, you'll be able to find it on ebay for under 150 bucks.

At any rate, this stands as quite a monumental testament to a legendary Canadian artist and I'm sure if you appreciate classical piano at all, this set would provide hours of inspiration.

I already have the 12-CD Original Jacket Collection of his Bach works, so I'm satisfied for now, at least.

PAT METHENY Secret Story Re-issue

I have been anticipating this release for awhile since it was announced on Pat's site a few months back. Even though I own the original, this re-issue is certainly worth getting just for the bonus disc, which contains extra 5 tracks.

This is the first Pat Metheny CD I ever owned, so that's probably one reason why I still tend to like this one so much. I remember the day I walked into a small used shop in PEI and this was playing on the stereo. I was immediately hooked and I asked the guy what it was, he showed the cover to me, and I asked him if it was for sale. I quickly snapped it up after he said YES.

This is NOT really a jazz album, it's more like a soundtrack to a movie, very cinematic and breathtaking. Many people think this is one of Pat's worst albums just because it's too "world" and not jazz. Yes, it does contain some world instruments and a Cambodian choir on the first track, so I guess it's world, but who gives a shit. It's just a great album to me. Yeah, it's kinda gay and cheesy, but I'm one appreciates good cheese and Pat Metheny is definitely top quality cheddar in my book.

I haven't really compared the remaster to the original, but it sounds great to these ears. I remember the original sounding really good, so I can't imagine how it could be better, but I'll have to closely compare them one of these days.

BORIS Mania

I think everything that needs to be said about this band has already been said a million times, so i won't get into how awesome I think this band is. I mean, it doesn't get any better than a fucking noise/stoner/sludge band that also happens to have a amazingly gorgeous big-breasted guitar player (Wata) who looks so beautiful, but shreds so evil. Check out the album cover for "Feedbacker", it's truly woody-inducing. Maybe we'll be lucky and get a nude photobook of her included with the next CD.

Anyway, enough about my sick fantasies of mounting Wata. Let's get to the music. First of all, there's a shitload of releases. I mean a shitload. And there's like 30 versions of the same album, which make them a very collectable band. So you can easily go broke just collecting Boris CD's and LP's. Or you can just download their entire discography from a torrent file, which is pretty easy to find actually.

The first Boris CD I ever bought was Feedbacker, and i think that one's still one of my favorites. But I'd have to say my personal favorite so far is DRONEVIL, it's a 2-CD set, but you're supposed to play the 2 CD's on 2 different stereos simultaneously. Well, I don't have two damn stereos and neither do most people, so I just mixed the two discs in ProTools and burned everything onto 1 track. Aaahhhhhhh, DRONEVIL, it IS the shit. I get a metal boner listening this, it's the epitamy of doom.

My other personal favorites are FLOOD, ABSOLUTEGO, and AMPLIFIER WORSHIP. The aforementioned albums are all long drone concept albums clocking in at over an hour, and that's the BORIS I prefer at this point. I have 7 or 8 Boris CD's which is nothing, considering that many of their fanbase collect EVERY version of every LP and CD. I like too many other bands to be just a collector of BORIS. I've heard most of the other limited LP's and some of them are not necessary anyway. I downloaded mp3's of most of those and made handmade CD versions. For example, there are 3 volumes of "The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked" which are good, but not absolutely necessary. Also, there are 2 completely different versions of VEIN, a hardcore version and a drone version. They're good too, but not essential.

There's also an soundtrack CD to an imaginary film called "Mabuta No Uta", which is really nice. There's 3 or 4 versions of that i think, and to make things even more frustrating, each version has different packaging and tracks that can't be found on the other version(s).

If you don't like the long drone/sludge so much and just wanna hear some great Sabbath-like balls to the wall ROCK, pick up PINK, HEAVY ROCKS or AKUMA NO UTA (which is actually a good sampling of all their flavors, so a good place to dive in head first). Boris has a little something for everyone I think, and that's part of what makes them so unique. They're not afraid to limit themselves and each subsequent release shows them growing.

A few of my other current favorites is the Sunn O))) Boris collaboration "ALTAR" and the MERZBOW / BORIS collaboration aptly titled "Sun Baked Snow Cave".

Like I said before, you don't need to buy everything they've ever put out, but just about everything I've heard so far is good in some way or another. I'm really looking forward to hearing their new CD with Ghost guitarist, Michio Kurihara, I heard nothing but good things about it.

There's tons of information and resources on Boris, and just about everyone and his dog has blogged about them in some way, so that's why I'm gonna keep this post relatively short. You can start by checking out their website at http://homepage1.nifty.com/boris/

STAR TREK TOS HD DVD

Holy shit. Is this necessary? I already have the supposedly "remastered" STAR TREK TOS on standard DVD format, the ones that come in the hard plastic cases and those are just fine for me. I haven't even got around to watching ANY of the extras and I'll probably never get around to watching them all. So here comes another cash grab from Paramount Home Entertainment, announcing the US HD DVD release of Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 on 20th November 2007 priced at $217.99 SRP. Here's the description I lifted from another site:

"See The Original Series as never before when the legendary first season arrives for the first time ever in a 10-disc HD DVD/DVD combo disc set. Meticulously remastered from the original camera negative specifically for this high-definition release, each classic episode is presented in pristine condition with state-of-the-art digital visual effects. 1960s special effects have been replaced with 21st century computer-generated imagery to give new depth and atmosphere to various elements including the main title sequence, the galaxy shots frequently seen from the Enterprise's bridge, the battle scenes, planets and alien ships, some of the matte paintings used as backdrops for new worlds, as well as the Enterprise and other Starships, which have been replaced with state-of-the-art CGI-created ships. The new computer-generated Enterprise is based on the exact measurements of the original model, which now rests in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The refurbished episodes also feature higher quality sound for the famous opening theme. The original score by Emmy Award-winning composer Alexander Courage has been re-recorded in state-of-the-art digital stereo audio with an orchestra and a female singer belting out the famous vocals. A digitally remastered version of William Shatner's classic original recording of the 38-word "Space, the final frontier..." monologue continues to open each episode.

In addition, the extraordinary set features true HD audio and exclusive HD DVD interactive features produced by New Wave Entertainment. Interactive menus and a "Starfleet Access" interface will allow viewers to activate icons which provide such features as Picture in Picture video commentaries and an interactive tour of the Starship Enterprise. Both the standard definition and high definition presentations also include rare on-set home movie footage, an inside perspective on what it took to transport Trek into the 21st century and much more. Finally the set comes housed in a futuristic clear case."

OK. Great. But I'm quite happy watching the original ones. I like the crappy cheap special effects and I don't need to see any added digital enhancements, thank you very much. This brings up the issue that arises AGAIN and AGAIN about adding digital effects to old movies. IT SHOULDN'T BE MESSED WITH. They're not even giving fans the whole picture. If you take a look at the startrek.com website and click on the remasterd episodes links you'll see pictures of the remastered effects shown in 1:85 ratio. There is plenty of room to construct a 1:85 frame from the original 35mm negatives of these shows. So probably in a few years, you'll see another WIDESCREEN version released saying that IT is the DEFINITIVE STAR TREK release. So it goes on and on.

I'm no rocket scientist, but wouldn't it be physically impossible to high definition version of a 40 year old show? This set will not look much better than the regular edition, which is selling for about 60 bucks now. Studios are basically ripping off consumers if they're releasing HD versions of old films. Would you buy an HD version of the original Dracula? No, I don't think you would unless you're a complete clod. HD reproductions of older films and TV shows will look even grainier than before, due to the fact that the computers responsible for creating the higher resolution output will attempt to compensate for the initial low-res by adding more pixels in the empty spaces. This has been proven by many people who've complained that "Blu-Ray" versions of older films looked worse than the standard DVD editions. This whole current trend of Blu-Ray and HD DVD is good for people who only like films that have been made in the past few years, but for people like me, the majority of films I watch are pre-1980, so Blue Ray and HD are useless and I can't understand why people are shelling out big bucks for these old films that have been "meticulously" restored to look like crap.

The only plus point I can see is that the package design looks pretty awesome, however, it doesn't in any way merit spending over 200 bucks. Keep your originals.

http://www.filmjunk.com/2007/09/04/star-trek-the-original-series-hd-dvd-features-revealed/

The education system in Japan, teaching kids, violent crime in Japan, suicide, murder, deterioration of Japanese society & other crap

Teaching kids is for the birds. First of all, it's not the kids fault. Stupid kid, stupid parent, right? Stupidity is inherited I believe. i live in Japan, and I teach kids only on Monday, and thank ____ for that. (I don't believe in GOD™, that's why I left a blank) I can't believe that some people do this all week, 6 days a week. Good Christ, I'd have been committed by now if I had to teach kids every day.

It seems to have been the trend in Japan for the last 5 or 6 years + and it doesn't matter whether kids are interested in learning English or not, they're pretty much forced to attend English classes as early as 6 months old! Learning a second language when they're young is the ideal time to to do it, but a 6-month old baby doesn't even have their own language figured out yet, let alone a foreign language. Parents should at least wait until their child is old enough to make that choice for themselves.

Parents in Japan just send their kids to English school because that's what their friends are doing, and their friends, and so on and so on. It's just another example of the ruthless competitiveness this country is known for. The thinking is that if their kids aren't going to English school, their friends think they're poor, or weird or don't care about their kids' education and future. What a bunch of shit THAT IS.

What really pisses me off to no end is that when the mothers bring their kids to school, they are chit-chatting and gossiping like it's a fucking café, and I have to strain my voice sometimes just so it's loud enough for the kids to hear over their mothers' mundane chatter. Japanese wives are very good at certain things and one of those things is waste their husbands' salary. At least if you're forcing your kids to go to school, please TAKE A FUCKING INTEREST in what your kids are learning. If you wanna chat, piss off with ya and go home.

The school I teach is not that bad actually. Yeah, there's some bad kids, stupid kids and just down-right evil kids, but it doesn't even compare to some of the horror stories I've heard from other teachers. If there's so much violence in school's these days, why isn't there a camera monitoring every classroom? Now, before you think that's a little "extreme", why don't you read a few little bedtime stories about things that have happened in Japan over the last few years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50678-2004Aug8.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16500163/site/newsweek/
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0509/050924-violence.html
http://web-japan.org/trends98/honbun/ntj980401.html
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/384109
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?nn20051007f1.htm

Here's a few more little "news bits". some of them are not school related, but they are included just to give you an idea of the nature of some of the violent crimes in the last few years in Japan.

"TOKYO — 17-year-old boy stabs his mother to death. Having killed his mother as she slept, the boy cut off her arm and head with a saw. Spray-painted her arm white and stuck it in a potted plant. Put her head in a sports bag and carried it with him to an Internet cafe, where he spent two hours watching rap music videos in a private booth. He then took a taxi to a police station in his town in northern Japan, where he surrendered the head and told the officers, "It didn't matter who I killed." It's pretty hard to swallow such a story, but it's real, and this kind of shit seems to be going on regularly in Japan."

Over the last several months, there has been a series of killings in which the bodies have been cut up or disposed of in sickening ways. Who's to blame? TV? Violent Manga? Movies? Music? There's a huge sense that a country once bound by tight family values and community ties is deteriorating into something quite ugly indeed. Here's more...

"In December, a Tokyo woman confessed to killing her allegedly adulterous husband hitting him with a wine bottle and then cutting his body into pieces. The parts were found scattered across two city wards; his head was buried in a suburban park."

"a 21-year-old Tokyo man was accused of killing his younger sister. He claimed he lashed out violently after she belittled him for his failure to win acceptance to dental school. Police said he hacked her body into pieces and stuffed the parts into four garbage bags."

"In March, the strangled body of a young, female English-language teacher from Britain was discovered buried in a sand-filled bathtub in a university student's Tokyo apartment. The suspect eluded a police raid and is still on the run."

"Woman in Yokohama randomly stabs her 2-year-old child in a shopping mall."

"Couple accused of dumping their toddler son's body on a mountainside after he suffocated in the helmet compartment of their motorcycle."

"a 14-year-old killer deposited the severed head of an 11-year-old child at the gates of an elementary school in Kobe, and taunted police and citizens with threats to kill again before he was finally caught."

OK. Who's to blame? It's easy to lay blame on Japan's many social ills or America's negative influence, or even violent games, movies, music, manga, etc but I can't help thinking it's due to all this pressure and competitiveness brought on by Japanese society. Firstly it starts in the home, then secondly, in the schools. Kids are so pressured in this country to do well in school that some actually commit suicide because they fail a test, or they lose a game. And we're not talking just high school kids, we're talking about elementary and junior high school kids too.

Another fact you should keep in mind is that Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. On average, over 80 people EACH DAY off themselves, most commonly by hanging themselves or by jumping in front of a train.

Here's a personal account of one of my students, and I'm not going to mention any names for obvious reasons. She's only 5 and she has been attending a special English school for the last few years, and her English is pretty good actually. Her English is good because she has been going to school from 9:00 in the morning til 5:00 in the afternoon 5 days a week and she can ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH in the classroom. Then, her mother also brings her to the school that I teach for another hour. I can't help notice her mothers' stern look the whole time, she never smiles and she watches her daughter like a hawk, just waiting for her to fuck up, so that she can scold her. You can even sense a certain fear in the child, when she answers a question. It's truly sad and i feel really sorry for the kid, because she hasn't been given any choice in the matter. This may just be one of those kids that grows up later in life and suddenly snaps because she's been carefully controlled her whole life, and now she needs to feel freedom...

The current school system in the U.S., Canada, Japan and many other countries has done little else than force schools to teach kids how to beat those standardized tests. It's a common complaint for young teachers that they feel like they've become a slave to this nonsense. Those tests are fucking meaningless and everyone knows it.

I see a tremendous failure of the educational system every day in Japan, bad system, bad teachers who don't give a shit about students, too many classroom hours, no interaction between students and teachers, many cases of teachers molesting and raping their students, it's fucking pathetic actually. I don't want to call kids stupid, because I don't think that's the problem, exactly. They're just so incapable of forming complete, written or spoken thoughts with actual grammar and correct spelling. There was an article in VICE magazine a number of years ago that reproduced a bunch of essays handed in by Grade 12 high school students in the U.S. and they were riddled with spelling errors, terrible grammar and incomprehensible script.

What's the solution? I don't know, actually, but I think parents can stop by letting their kids have mind of their own and stop forcing them into doing shit they have no interest in doing. (How man of you remember taking piano lessons?) One thing is CRYSTAL CLEAR. Many parents in Japan are just plain STUPID. And also, be a good parent and do shit with your kids, don't just leave them in their rooms playing Nintendo DS.

If the U.S. and Japan doesn't get their shit together, they will fall desperately behind the rest of the world. They already ARE falling behind. THIS IS a global marketplace now, y'know?

Tim Berne's Bloodcount Boxset

This is awesome news, so I thought I'd share it. Media: 2CD+DVD - STREET DATE 9/18. PLEASE NOTE: DVD IS 2-SIDED & INCLUDES NTSC+PAL! A double disc boxed set of UNRELEASED material from Tim Berne's legendary BLOODCOUNT quartet uncovered by TB himself & artfully mastered by DAVID TORN. BLOODCOUNT at its best w/JIM BLACK (drums), CHRIS SPEED (tenor, clarinet) & MICHAEL FORMANEK (contrabass). Includes 2 audio cds both recorded live in 1997 AND a DVD, brilliantly mastered by Bob Ludwig, of their legendary Paris concert in 1994 w/the addition of Marc Ducret on guitar. Can Screwgun be stopped? REGION=0.

Can't wait to seize this one. I hope it's not gonna cost an arm and a leg. I saw it listed on one Japanese site for almost 6,000 yen.

tits n ass beer

Another classic spoof ad.

evil beavers vs. miller lite

classic Miller Lite Ad from Swedish advertising geniuses, Traktor.

Jukka Bros.

Classic MTV ad. Wish i could find the other ones. There were a series of 3 or 4 I believe.

Reach and Frequency

I remember seeing this ad when I was working in advertising in Vancouver, and I thought it was hilarious. It's kind of a spoof of how free and crazy advertising agencies were in the 70's, with people sleeping around with other industry people. Great ad.

Spiders On Drugs

This is pretty funny. I remember these ads very well, and if you're Canadian I'm sure you do too. Sure brings back some good memories. I learned a lot of shit from those "Hinterland Who's Who" Interludes.

FLUX DESIGN WORKS IS BACK UP

Sorry for the inconvenience. Hoping to get around to making a brand new site at some point in the future. Just haven't had the ambition to do much of anything in this maddening summer heat and humidity. Cheers! The Belch

LATE OZU

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