Archives for July, 2003
2003.07.31 (Thu)
Griffin iTrip Apparently Illegal in UK
00:28 | Comments (21)
According to this story from Tony Smith in The Register, Griffin’s iTrip FM radio transmitter for the iPod appears to be illegal in the UK.
2003.07.30 (Wed)
Photos for Friends
00:28 | Comments (12)
Two Shimokitazawa photographs for friends (Fuji print film in a Contax T2)
More Festival Pictures
00:28 | Comments (2)
Alright, so I have to cheat. By way of filling up the page because I can’t stand to look at things the way they are, here are more photographs from the Kyodo Festival.
Japan Photography Mailing List
00:28 | Comments (1)
lil and Juergen Specht have launched the Japan Photography mailing list which, given their bona fides, ought to be worth subscribing to pronto.
Jack Kerouac Bobblehead Doll
00:28 | Comments (26)
CNN: The first 1,000 fans at the August 21 game between the Lowell Spinners and Williamsport Crosscutters of the Class A New York-Penn League will receive bobbing likenesses of Jack Kerouac.
2003.07.28 (Mon)
Kyodo Festival
00:28 | Comments (2)
By way of getting something to look at back on the main page here, this is a photograph from the local festival the weekend before last. I’m crawling out from underneath the cold I caught so bear with me as I catch up here.
Goya’s Black Paintings
00:28 | Comments (17)
I must have been about 9 or 10 years old when I discovered a book of reproductions of 19th century European paintings belonging to my grandfather. It contained a full-page plate of Goya’s Saturn (giving the title as “Saturn devouring his children”) and this is the only image I can recall from that book. It’s an image that, quite understandably, has never left me, and I’d have to say that my discovery of that picture is one of my more powerful childhood memories.
2003.07.22 (Tue)
Big Weekend
00:28 | Comments (6)
A mixed bag of a weekend, mostly good but the souvenir I’m left with is a sore throat that seems to want to head south into my lungs.
2003.07.17 (Thu)
Meowlingual
00:28 | Comments (15)
It had to happen. Now there’s the Meowlingual to follow the Bowlingual.
Halfway Between Fact and Knowledge
00:28 | Comments (4)
Just got back from the July Tokyo bloggers’ meet-up where Robb Satterwhite (of Tokyo Food Page fame) told me that Setagaya-ku (where I live) is the only ward of all 23 in Tokyo which has no JR lines running through it (JR is the national rail service).
2003.07.16 (Wed)
Yukata Season
00:28 | Comments (5)
Summer in Japan means festivals and fireworks, and festivals and fireworks mean yukata (light, summer kimono).
Etherfarm 3.whatever
00:28 | Comments (6)
Etherfarm launches a redesign and it’s just beautiful.
2003.07.15 (Tue)
Blackberry
00:28 | Comments (6)
Welcomed a healthy blackberry specimen into the garden a couple of days ago, which sounds strange to say because the plant is considered a pest by farmers in many parts of Australia and New Zealand (and quite probably elsewhere).
2003.07.14 (Mon)
Philosophies of Life
00:28 | Comments (23)
I find that being an atheist, while not exactly diminishing the repertoire of philosophies one can live by, does allow you to cut them from a tangier wheel of cheese than that with which the more pious might top their existential crackers (that said, I’m really just a red cheddar kind of guy).
The Photographs of Nick Kilroy
00:28 | Comments (5)
Great compositional skill, a fine and sometimes quirky sense of colour, and — what? — an obvious affinity for the tenuous light of memory, let’s say.
En Charrette
00:28 | Comments (3)
How apt that today’s Word-a-Day is charrette
2003.07.13 (Sun)
Under the Banner of Heaven
00:28 | Comments (20)
Jon Krakauer has a new book out (Timothy Egan, NYTimes). It’s not about mountains.
Sea of Fire
00:28 | Comments (3)
200 North Korean missiles pointed at Japan? Bring ‘em on!
2003.07.12 (Sat)
The Insolent Art of Michel Houellebecq
00:28 | Comments (2)
Julian Barnes on Michel Houellebecq (The New Yorker)
Ah, the endless battle of man versus nature doled out in yearly rituals.
Sumo Faces
00:28 | Comments (6)
The Asahi Shinbun featured these wonderful caricatures of sumo wrestlers in its profile of the starting lineup for the Nagoya tournament last Saturday. Take Al Hirschfield, replace the show business with a bulky pugnacity, and this is what you get.
2003.07.11 (Fri)
A Few Ideas from the Maybe Pile
00:28 | Comments (3)
A few things I found jotted in my current notebook that I’ll probably never get around to doing.
Map Week #5 - The Trains of Edo
00:28 | Comments (7)
Sticking with the themes of old maps, novelties, and views of Ueno, this is an Edo-era map of Tokyo overlaid with the current subway system.
The Virtual and the Actual
00:28 | Comments (4)
If, as John Perry Barlow famously said, cyberspace is where you are when you’re on the telephone, then mobile phones represent the first real and widespread encroachment of the virtual upon the actual.
2003.07.08 (Tue)
Crocosmia, or How the Web Works
00:28 | Comments (9)
If someone wanted to invent a serendipity machine, it might look a lot like the web.
2003.07.07 (Mon)
First International Moblogging Conference
00:28 | Comments (3)
I was quite looking forward to The First International Moblogging Conference but when Saturday arrived I simply couldn’t face the prospect of being indoors. I’d hunkered down in front of the machine for a solid week (more, really) and if I didn’t get outside and buzz around like a blue-arsed fly something bad would have happened.
2003.07.05 (Sat)
Spray-On Jockstrap
00:28 | Comments (15)
So there are spray-on stockings for women now (a Japanese invention). I got to thinking how men could enjoy the benefits of clothing in a can and am pleased to present to active gentlemen everywhere a revolution in comfort and support: the spray-on jockstrap.
2003.07.04 (Fri)
First International Love Hotel Moblogorama
00:29 | Comments (2)
Didn’t manage to participate (damn) but there are vicarious thrills aplenty at the The First International Love Hotel Moblogging Conference. Cute, cute idea.
2003.07.03 (Thu)
Map Week #4 - Tuftian Hakone
00:29 | Comments (1)
This example’s a bit of a throwaway but now that we’ve gone and mentioned Tufte we may as well include it. Here’s Hakone as it appears on the 3-pane gatefold brochure for Tenzan.
2003.07.01 (Tue)
One-Minute Vacation
00:29 | Comments (6)
Quiet American, one-minute vacation. A brilliant collection of recordings from around the world.
Smoking Kills
00:29 | Comments (4)
Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life. — Brooke Shields, during an interview to become Spokesperson for federal anti smoking campaign.
Map Week #3 - Ueno Old and New
00:29 | Comments (1)
In Envisioning Information Edward Tufte reprints an old map of Ueno (you can see Shinobazu Pond on the left there) to illustrate the subtleties of colour in a well-shaded map. In 1990 the good people at the Kokudo Chiriin put out a 1:10,000 map of Tokyo, far more boldly but also beautifully coloured. It comes in a handsome dustjacket, and when I opened it I discovered the map folded inside presented the exact view of the map Tufte provides.
Flip Flop on Milk Fats
00:29 | Comments (6)
In yet another example of the possibility that we may not know anything at all about matters dietary (surely “everything in moderation” is all you need to know), there’s now research that suggests dairy fats may prevent asthma.
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