Monday, June 02, 2003

Dead cat wedding? Don't blame me. Blame Radiohead.



And Walter Potter, a Victorian taxidermist and creepy dude who stuffed kittens for pleasure. Well, what did he know about animal rights? Back then, the women drank small potions of arsenic just to stay porcelain white, and thought all toads were venomous and could live in lumps of stone for, like... ever. My point is check out Radiohead's new video for "There There."

Here here: http://www.nme.com/features/105077.htm

It's extremely Bjork "Human Behavior" stop-action, conceptual cool. I mean, it's no Justin Timberlake video but...

Hell yes, I'm joking. If only spontaneous combustion could be willed telepathically.

Man, what a day besides the Stuffed Cat and Dog aspect of it. Today, I have read so much about Japanese bento (obento, obentoo, bentou) boxes that I had to go down to the corner market for rice crackers. While some Anime loving 'tween ganked my bento box right out from under me on eBay, I have benefitted greatly from the loss.

Researching online stores for the perfect red or "aka" bento box has lead me down a much needed imformative path concerning Japanese culture and interesting aspects. For example, who knew they celebrated Valentine's Day in Japan at all (introduced in 1958 probably by Brach's Candies). Except on Japan's version of Valentine's Day, only the men receive gifts. Yeah, the women give chocolates to all the men in their lives in the form of either "giri-chocko" or "honmei-chocko". Giri-chocko is I Just Wanna Be Friends Chocolates while Honmei-chocko is apparently ChicaBwowWow Chocolates. Probably gifts of hard candies and M&Ms so they won't melt in their hands.

I also learned of White Day which is the holiday in response to Japan's Valentine's Day. See, on March 14th, the men are supposed to return the favor to the women's heartfelt niceties with white candy, like marshmallow. But then candy companies soon jumped on that bandwagon and manufactured lots of candies in white to knock marshmallows out of the running.

Which is smart. Real smart. Because it's simple: I don't care what part of the universe you live in, if a woman gives you chocolate and you keep her waiting for 30 days only to produce mechanically puffed confections to her on White Day... unless she's your Mom or unless they are shaped like Hello Kitty, you're one dead man walking a thin line getting thinner.

More cool Japanese stuff tomorrow, I bet. Much like crying stuffed robins and Radiohead, the subject is just too fascinating.

No comments: