San Baka Tai-Shou.

三バカ大将 is pronounced as per above and refers to the Three Stupid Generals (not sure how that equals stooges, but I may have my kanji wrong.) Back in March, a rumour started circulating about a Three Stooges movie with Sean Penn to play Larry, Benicio del Toro, to play Moe and Jim Carrey to play Curly. Anyone know if it's been resurrected as reality? (Frankly I'd rather see someone else as Curly (Jon Favreau?) and have Jim play Shemp, but that's just me.)

Here our 3 baka guys end up in Japanese guise. Enjoy:

Happy Echoversary!

This is what the flyer looks like for tomorrow's 10th Anniversary celebration of ECHOPHONYK at ClubShaft with a special guest appearance by its founder, DJ MOKUGOHAN! It's a really cool flyer but wouldn't the flyer look so much cooler if it were made of STAR WARS letters?

Mao-sy No Longer.

As the article in the Asahi Weekly states, "Mao regains her footing." 浅田 真央 (Asada Mao) is Japan's next Olympic hopeful in the Figure Skating category. Check out her Official Site for more details, if you're so inclined.
Though I'm usually not so interested in skating unless it involves hockey sticks and slashing, this is not my first foray into the world of Figure Skating. I never did meet Sendai's very own 荒川 静香 (Arakawa Shizuka) who was the 2006 Olympic Champion and the 2004 World Champion but I came close. One of my pals, Mariko who has her finger in most of the pies in this city, once asked me to translate her Skating resumé into English so that she could take her Ice show to Dubai of all places. Some of this may actually be my handiwork! I never got paid for this work, but I was given free Rakuten Eagle tickets as compensation. Shizuka was intended to become a sponsor for the Pirate Charity that I was assisting occasionally and we were supposed to meet at that ballgame. She didn't show otherwise I'm certain that we would have hit it off and today we'd be working on our second child together! (In some parallel universe, this time-line has occurred.)

Anyway, back to Mao. Best of luck to her in Vancouver, I hope she beats her South Korean rival (Kim Yu-na) and I'll even allow her to win the Gold, provided she makes room for Canada to win the Silver (Ha! Fat chance!) Remember, it's not whether you win or lose that's important, what's important is that the USA loses (I kid!)



Now for the reason that I'm rambling about Figure Skating in the first place...Lotte chocolates have had a promo where if you buy two of their products, you get a free Mao-strap! Look what I have attached to my phone now! Quite the conversation starter...

Don't Stop Believin'!

Congrats to GLEE on it's Golden Globe win. It's nice to see a show win in the Comedy and Musical category that is both a comedy and a musical. I caught the first few episodes in a sneak preview last month and rather enjoyed it.

I'd like it even more if this guy were a star:





Watch them soon, before they get taken down by the YouTube police (AGAIN!)

Menagerie a Trois.

You may think that I've shown as much stuffed stuff as possible, but no, there is more. First up I'll show off a few more movie/tv characters, then various animals (you should be able to figure out what they are) and then a ton of Japanese characters that may be more esoteric. (Click that link to see a whole bunch of Marvel characters, Godzillas, Gameras et al.)







Try and guess what they are in the comments if you dare...





























Finally we have a character from 笑う犬の (Warau inu no Bourke, literally, The Adventures of Laughing Dog aka, "Silly Go Lucky") is a show here that I've watched on occasion and have yet to crack a smile. Could be the language barrier, but I think it's the humour barrier that needs to be broken. Maybe you'll have better lucky.
Here's a few more...

Disney Can Stuff It!

Here is a Disney display of dolls. Can you identify them all?

In The Pink!

Continuing to showcase my menagerie of stuffed characters, here is
ピンク・パンサー (Pink Panther) in various costumes. It's fairly easy to figure out his disguise, doesn't he believe in wearing a mask?









Worst movies ever (the remakes, that is, remember when Steve Martin was amusing?) Best theme song ever!



Speaking of Pink, I hope that all of the Vancouver Olympics will be this fantastic. I see a bad moon arising...