The Discovery channel has been airing this commercial (actually, a little bit longer version) to the annoyance of me and my mother (and hopefully other Asians?)  Notice trigger words such as “the Japanese” and um, “it’s up to US to stop THEM.”

Let’s get something straight.  Whaling is bad.  No doubt about it.  But when you have an older, white male angrily spouting US vs. THEM rhetoric,  you have yourself a veiled jab at the Japanese, which could arguably stem from some leftover World War II resentment. Not to mention the name of the documentary, Whale Wars, along with special highlights of the program which include throwing mysterious, grenade-like objects onto the decks of whaling ships.

Also, my mom’s initial reaction: “Oh, like Americans have never hunted anything illegal before?”

- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- If Only My 5th Grade Teacher Was This Cool
- Font Conference

A cute video with sleek design and animation.

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- What's Happening Wednesday
- What's Happenin' Friday
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- If Only My 5th Grade Teacher Was This Cool

So you might think that, with my last two posts being somewhat close together in times they were written, my schedule has been freed up since I started this graphic design job in this crazy world of politics. And you’d be half right. Time has freed up, but not at home – at work!

Have you recently gotten way-too-long e-mails from me lately? That’s because work is dead but I still need to stay! Noticed I’ve been making more friends on Facebook? They’re all co-workers, equally as bored and eager to kill time as I am!

In other words, blah blah blah, I have been working more than a month straight with nary a day off and with each day spanning anywhere from the standard 8 hours to an awesome 12! (That’s like, half a day!) So I have been going a little nuts, listening to hours and hours of music on my iPod, playing Tetris like a maniac, buying a Chocobo-themed Nintendo DS cover for my non-existent DS, and of course, blogging.

Tonight I will once again be too tired to do anything productive with my time, eat sushi with too-much-wasabi (a ritual I started following the demise of Tumbles), watch Tyra do her thing on ANTM, mourn the loss of Project Runway and probably end up watching music videos on YouTube of the finest band to sing about New England to a redonk degree, Vampire Weekend.

What’s happening with you?

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- The Life of Tumbles
- What's Happenin' Friday
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies

OK, so we all know that Disney, or the pathetic shell of what used to be Disney, had to go back to the drawing board in order to come up with a less-offensive version of 2009’s animated The Princess and The Frog.

Watch the trailer and you’ll see an adorable Princess (albeit with straightened hair) avoiding kissing a way-too-eager frog. The animation is smooth, fluid and there is Randy Newman singing in the background.

Only the camera zooms out and you see this mess:

Really?

Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and think about all the sidekick animals that tagged along other Disney Princesses:

Snow White: Forest critters. All teeth intact.

Sleeping Beauty: Forest critters. All teeth intact.

Cinderella: Mice with clothes. All pairs of teeth intact.

Belle: Possessed houseware. All teeth intact save for Chip, who had a missing front tooth.

Princess Jasmine: Tiger. All teeth intact.

Pocahontas: Hummingbird and racoon. All teeth intact.

Mulan: Cricket and a dragon. All teeth intact.

So Disney’s first ever Black Princess is accompanied by um, a toothless Godfairy? Sidekick? What the hell is this thing? Princess Jasmine gets a badass tiger, and Princess Tiana gets a reject from Thumbelina?

Nothing is ever going to be portrayed in a light that we can all agree upon, but this is just a slap in the face. (Not to mention that this is supposed to be New Orleans with a focus on Jazz, despite um, Randy Newman. So like, there was nothing in all of Jazz history that Disney found suitable accompaniment to a movie that takes its inspiration from the Jazz Age?)

I might still go and see the movie, if only for the fact that it’s in 2D animation. But judging from the trailer and what I’ve read up on various articles, I feel a major disappointment coming on from a studio who could be using this chance to redeem themselves for their extended past of misrepresenting minorities, plus the sheer lack of quality of the stuff they’ve been churning out lately (I’m sorry to say this but: I honest to God hated Ratatouille.)

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- What's Happenin' Friday
- Cher to Play Catwoman

An awesome animated short about owls that a 5th grade teacher made for his students.  If teachers did this sort of thing for every subject they were passionate about, the world would be a lot smarter.

Source: Drawn!

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- Font Conference

A hilarious look at what fonts would be like as people.

A lot of people outside of the design world might not realize how much personality fonts actually have, and by changing a number of variables (spacing, boldness, positioning, color) you can express limitless ideas. I was once asked to change the font of someone’s name on a piece because the ‘g’s in his name were “too squiggly and feminine.” The font was Times New Roman–the same used for newspapers and other serious mediums. So I changed it to the ever-manly Impact, a bold sans serif font that I equivocate to old Superman cartoons where everything is streamlined and it’s all about bounding over trains and Lois Lane.

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- If Only My 5th Grade Teacher Was This Cool

…And all I have to offer is this music video inspired by Bollywood movies sung in Spanish featuring Natalie Portman.

I came back to America at the beginning of June and I have to say that I still feel like I’m adjusting to being back home. I am not sure why I have been absent for so long from this blog, but I am guessing it is a combination of readjusting and plain lack of inspiration.

I also spent my days job hunting, and after many failed attempts landed at my dream job where I now serve as a graphic designer/website creator (so much for that whole majoring-in-East-Asian-Studies thing!) Unfortunately, the job is influenced by political campaigns and will end with the elections at the beginning of November, but hopefully if I work hard enough I will build up an awesome portfolio filled with flag graphics and headshots of fat old men and then everyone will want to hire me!

In other news, I have been watching movies practically every week since I came back, and came to the realization that four of the movies were all based off of comic book titles. Which leads me to this rant that I posted privately in my LiveJournal, but am aiming to take this blog in a different direction (can you tell?) and so I will post a snippet in here:

Sometimes when I watch movies that are based off of comics, I feel as though I am merely watching two pairs of testicles angrily flopping against each other, amongst car explosions and naked women. There is no room to breathe and no voice for the other half. It has become the norm for “good” action movies and summer blockbusters to be all about men taking care of business, with barely a main female role to play Smurfette in the all-male gun-toting extravaganza.

I realize it is a Catch-22 when it comes to comic book movies. Many titles were written in days where it was still blatantly OK to play down women and minorities in media. You cannot ask for a movie based off of old societal standards to resonate well with everybody and still be true to the original idea. But sometimes I wonder what movies would be like if all the male actors were replaced with women but everything else was kept the same way–dialog, actions, emotions. Would it still be successful? Would it all of a sudden turn into a chick flick?

These are the thoughts that have been troubling me lately, and for me I find it ironic that Japan offers more sexual equality in media despite the society’s on-going oppression of women, whereas the more liberal American media offer little solace for women who want to feel like the heroes for once. I have been sucked into watching Japanese dramas online and in particular am addicted to Life, based off a manga series by the same title.

The manga is written by a woman and the manga is geared towards to girls. The content is an unflinching look at Japanese school life, where both girls and boys lead messed up lives with horrible secrets. The girls are not sexualized and the interactions between them feel very real to me. I cannot think of an equivalent to this sort of show in the States except perhaps for Degrassi, but probably because it’s the only show not made by Disney aimed at the pre-teen audience containing serious material. Disney’s shows offer brightly colored teen pop stars to whom real girls could never relate to, but instead get the idea that they should want to be like them.

In any case, the world keeps spinning.

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- The Life of Tumbles
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies

Despite having never seen the show (I know, just shoot me now), I found this clip extremely funny.

Here are my attempts at translating the mangled Japanese:

“Hello.  This is Pam.”
“Pam.  Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam…..-san.” (-san is the equivalent to “Mr./Mrs./Miss”)
“?? What is it?”
“(couldn’t understand)”
“I am Japan’s most interesting boss.” (holds up mug that says the same thing)
(phone rings) “Hello.”
“Where is the stapler?”
“Stupid!”
“What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry.” (repeats as they bow to each other)
(commercial for o-hime-sama tampons.  “o-hime-sama” means princess. This pokes fun at celebrity endorsements in Japan that you’ll never see in the West.  Right now Cameron Diaz is endorsing the cellphone company Softbank, and Chloe Sevigny for Uniqlo.)
“I am your regional manager.”
“I am the assistant regional manager.”
(haha, couldn’t make this part out either as he points to a guy sitting in the group)
“Let’s do calisthenics!”
“He is worried about everybody’s health (giggling)”
“Well, it was good.  We worked well. I…think so?” (holds up doll) “Yes, yes, yes!”
(karaoke) “Cheers!”
I don’t really consider the gags in here racist since the gag is more pointing fun at the cast than anything else.  Also, I found some humor in the way they spoke the language just like in actual Japanese comedy.  I think it would be racist if the cast spoke in an incomprehensible language (what usually happens when portraying foreign characters), but the idea that the staff actually went so far to speak Japanese (albeit horrendously) gains them a little respect from my point of view.  What do you think?  Is this depiction of a Japanese The Office racist or harmless?  Can there be such a thing as harmlessly portraying another country like this?

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- Comedy Central Loves Black People
- What's Happenin' Friday

Hopefully this video will make up for my lack of posting lately–school is coming to an end and of course all papers are magically due at the same time.

Anyway, this is the Algorithm March, which is featured as part of children’s programming in the morning on Japanese TV.  Basically they show you how to do an interactive dance and song, and then incorporate with a lot of people.  I think it’s a great way to entice kids to exercise, to practice these dances and try to get them right.  They are also amazing to see because the performers are usually in business suits and have completely serious expressions–it’s always fun to watch grown ups doing funny things.

Now you understand why it is hard for me to teach Japanese children through American kids’ shows, because they are just not this cool.

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- Comedy Central Loves Black People
- What's Happenin' Friday

I am so glad I was able to find a video of this ridiculous competition, in which four women competed to see who could eat the most okonomiyaki. I saw this on TV and was completely mesmerized.

For those unfamiliar, okonomiyaki is a Kansai dish that is not unlike a pancake with…everything you can imagine on it. Usually cabbage, eggs, bacon, and other miscellaneous food items. What makes the okonomiyaki though, is the sauce. It is kind of like a tangy barbecue sauce without so much sugar. Needless to say, this fried phenomenon is terribly unhealthy for you, and here we see four average sized women packing them away.

Excerpt from the article in Mainichi:

Four finalists of the women-only contest, who survived the preliminary round in March, competed to see how many pancakes they can eat in an hour. Each okonomiyaki weighs one kilogram and measures 30 centimeters in diameter.

Hatsuyo Sugawara, a 44-year-old housewife from Iwate Prefecture, won the contest after eating 5.2 pancakes, and received 550,000 yen in prize money, a solid gold spatula, and the privilege of having the restaurant’s largest okonomiyaki named after her.

Source: Northern ‘Witch’ wins western eating contest - Mainichi Daily News

- Saving the Whales? Or Leftover WWII Resentment?
- Music: The Unfortunate Twist by Time Machine
- What's Happening Wednesday
- Comedy Central Loves Black People
- What's Happenin' Friday