June 30, 2004
Goals for guns
Well here's a novel idea, goals for guns. The Brazilian football team is going to play in Haiti and offer tickets for guns. The idea being they want to disarm a certain percentage of the population. Now what would it take to disarm American citizens? Free tickets to Superbowl for the rest of their lives? Free cable TV? Free internet access? Free bullet proof vests?
June 25, 2004
Bar one
I've actually become a fan of DB since he left the reds, but if you know your recent rugby and football history, you'll surely appreciate the above.
June 24, 2004
Pottering to Portugal
Why is it that we allow ourselves to be embarassed? Advanced tickets went on sale for the latest Harry Potter movie (opens Saturday) and I duly went early to get two for the Bloggs boys and one for a friend who is relieving me of the pain of having to sit through two and a half hours of dodgy child-acting and a story line which doesn't stray too far from a familiar pattern (and let's not even go into the fact that the humour - the only redeeming point of the books - just isn't translated on to screen at all!) Anyway, I thought getting to the cinema 20 minutes after opening time would mean I could breeze in an out and on to a haircut. Think again Mr. Bloggs. There was already a queue and it took me 1 hour to get to the front of it. Why was I embarassed being seen in such a lengthy line and why was I moritified when the girl at the counter asked if I wanted just one ticket? I wouldn't queue up for a movie I wanted to go and see, let alone this one. And yet I'm not embarassed to tell you that my head really isn't here at the moment. All thoughts lead to Lisbon and the England football team. Why aren't I embarassed about that?
June 23, 2004
Ilunga ... naa
How on earth you can classify one word as the most difficult word to translate in the world, I have no idea, but linguists have had a go. And the winner is ... "ilunga" from the Tshiluba language spoken in south eastern Congo. It means, rather generously, "a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time". I do catch the nearest and dearest (aka the Bloggs fam.) saying the third word in that linguist's list now and then, that of "naa" - used only in the Kansai area of Japan (that's us folks) to emphasise statements or agree with someone.
Football psychology
I feel compelled to point you to this Euro2004 pyschology chart I stumbled upon. Very accurate indeed.
June 22, 2004
Lisbon Lions
Haven't been here for a while. The thrills and spills in Lisbon have rather grabbed my attention. Normal service to resume soon. Promise.
June 16, 2004
Demented
This blog might get more interesting if I start suffering from senile dementia, but this article on the Beeb website suggests being bilingual will help me stave off that disease more than if I'd only had my mother tongue to help me through to old age. I wonder if that goes part of the way in explaining the hooliganism (surely a form of dementia) in the largely monolingual English?
June 14, 2004
Guess who?
He had easy access to power and he admits that, at first, he was slightly starstruck, given that his two admitted passions, which he said he shared with M, are business and politics: "I used to play a game where I would get my PA to see who I could get. So I would say 'get me the foreign secretary' and then Robin Cook would come on the line and then 'get me the PM' and after a couple of hours ... I once said 'get me the Pope', but I didn't [get a call back]. You could get almost anybody. It was incredible really."
Just say no
Please don't put your life in the hands
Of a football team, man
Who'll throw it all away!
June 12, 2004
Burn the flag then
Another case of politicians taking themselves far too seriously. If they've gone as far as to legalise brothels what exactly is the problem of the madam of the house buying a flag from the Reichstag parliament building and flying it over her bordello? Not only that, she's actually helping with the national debt!
History's cool eye
Matt Frei of the BBC suggests caution when he says, "The cool eye of history will decide whether (Ronald) Reagan deserves to be called great". In the aftermath of a quiet passing following a long and debilitating illness, most people are unwilling to talk ill of the dead. When, on top of that, you have an incumbent who could almost claim to be a grandchild, the clamour to foist greatness on a past president becomes deafening. For my part, I don't need to wait. I remember the Reagan years for his close ties with Margaret Thatcher and for a brand of cheque-book conservatism that did little for the people they were supposed to serve ... but a lot for vested interests. It is not surprising that the current administration looks upon him fondly for while Clinton provided the cash, Reagan and his cronies provided the ideas to tug the country further to the right and grant even more favours to the vested interests. As for the eulogising, well I've often thought the Americans could learn a lot from the British and start treating their politicians as politicians and not royalty. (The British, of course, could learn from the Americans and just get rid of their royalty!) All in all Ronnie was a B-grade actor, a C-grade pres., and if in death he has taken on a shine that projects an A-grade aura, it is only because one can't help comparing with what's around now and the current resident of the White House would assuredly get a grade commensurate with his reading level.
See Matt Frei's report via this video link.
June 07, 2004
Acknowledged
Let me ask you. Someone sends you a book that you've helped a little on (a very tiny little), what's the first thing you do when you've ripped open the envelope? Shameless me goes straight to the acknowledgements. It is nice to see one's name in print! Thanks Beverley. :+)
It all started a year ago
My, how time passes. Joe Bloggs turns a year!
June 06, 2004
1,700 yen worse off
Every now and then one should read a particularly bad book. Not too often. There are too many books to read before either the body or the mind gives way to do that. But now and then ... yes, it's a must. Be careful that it isn't a book somebody else says is bad. What's the point in that. No rather, pick up a book that you think might be good, or lots of other people are reading and then when you realise it is going nowhere, persevere. If it's particularly bad, it can even be good, but of course what something like that does is reinforce what good books can do for you. Bad books accentuate literature by their total lack of any semblance of it. Yes, folks I'm reading one now. Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' (no link, I don't want you to go to the trouble!) is truly awful. Yes, you learn a bit about art, religion and strange sects (assuming he isn't feeding us porkies), but I didn't know New York Times' best seller list authors could use clichés with abandon and still get favourable reviews. I understand the book is probably selling well because of the controversial nature of the subject (summarised in one sentence 'the Catholic church has its share of nutters and there's an almighty secret that those nutters want to get their hands on'), but for crying out loud, His Dark Materials had a go at the Church in a big way but Philip Pullman at least took us on his path with an extensive vocabulary and a vivid and engaging narrative. And his books are supposedly meant for children. Where were Brown's editors? Or do thriller writers and their publishers have a very low regard of their reader's ability to appreciate English. I paid about 300 yen for it at a bazaar and that was about 2,000 yen too much. Anyway I've found my bad book. Don't go searching for yours, but when it comes have some laughing gas at hand.
June 03, 2004
Curious Incident of the Fashion Girl and the Dog
Earlier this year I read a book which took as its starting point the murder of a dog in the night-time. Not quite a case of life imitating art, but a story in Pravda caught my eye because ... well frankly because it was strange. Why would a model set her dog on a sleeping dog and then finish off the job herself by stabbing it six times with a knife? Well for her troubles she's landed herself in a psychiatric clinic and the dog appears to be set for immortality much in the same way as this mutt in Tokyo.
June 02, 2004
Have container will travel
When I was on my world travels way back in ... let's just leave it at 'way back' ... I looked into the possibility of catching a freighter from Australia to Japan (with thoughts of getting the Trans-Siberian from there). I had been told that it was cheaper than flying and made some preliminary enquiries, but got nowhere. A friend did in fact do that and had the time of his life stopping at exotic ports on the way. Well, it seems it has now become a quite a business with companies offering rooms on board from $65-$125 a day. I think prices have gone up somewhat since my friend's time. But if you are interested, this guide to freighter travel has all the information you need. The FAQ section is particularly informative. I hope that site doesn't disappear. I'm definitely going to take a ride one day.
Via The Null Device
June 01, 2004
His Dark Materials
Finally finished the 'Dark Materials' trilogy a few days ago and I think the emotion that best describes the experience of reading them back-to-back is 'gobsmacked'. The array of ideas, the tightness of the plot, the tapestery of characters and worlds, and crystal clear descriptions of scenes and scenery, leave the head spinning ... in the best possible way. The third of the three (The Amber Spyglass) was possibly a little too rich in ideas - 'I' slowed down after the blazing speed of the first two - but it picks up pace again to a tumultous finish. A 'must, must read', and if you are lucky enough to know that you will be in London sometime between December 2004 and April 2005, I thorougly recommend you get your wallet or credit card out and book seats for the two-part play at the National Theatre.
You can listen to Philip Pullman discussing a few themes of the book in this BBC Radio 4 programme broadcast last year.
Seinfeld and Superman
Were you ever a Seinfeld fan? I don't know if he passed Britain by, but I think he hit it big during my early years here in Japan and so I only seemed to have caught him on re-runs in Australia and late-night TV in the UK since the advent of cable. Anyway, if you were/are a fan, you might like to check out a couple of 'webisodes' adverts for American Express in which Jerry hangs out with Superman. Almost a minimalist form of advertising where the sponsor's message gets very much a back seat. A little bit of fun if you have a broadband connection.
The Uniform: Quicktime Windows media
Hindsight: Quicktime Windows media
Via the Seinfeld Blog