Thanks to all you truly compassionate friends and readers who have sent me this over the past couple weeks – HAHA… But the joke’s on you, because in less than a year’s time I’ll be living in the steamy jungles of SE Asia, building my army of monkeys and surveying a nice spot for my teak plantation while my wife teaches all day at the university… I’ll think of you all fondly then.
Author: Justin
Penki-e
Bathhouse murals fading fast in Tokyo
I’ve never been to a sento in Tokyo, but I’ve seen these murals in Shizuoka and Nagano. The one in Nagano was at an ancient bathhouse with a single medium-sized bath and rust-colored hot water trickling from corroded lead pipes. The room was lit with a single bare bulb, and besides our group, the only other customers were shriveled old ojisans who claimed the rust was good for their kidneys. All I know is that it smelled like old pennies, and I rolled around in the snow outside to wash the rusty coating off my body afterwards. The one Shizuoka was really funny because on the opposite wall was a window from which you could see the actual mountain depicted in the mural (Mt. Fuji).
Like most other disappearing forms of art, I find this extremely sad, but I’m happy I’ve seen the real thing.
BTW, they sell poster replicas of these murals at the Loft (at the Shinsaibashi branch, at least), but they are quite expensive (over 3,000 yen) IMHO.
Herbs like herbicide
Jesus Christ on a pogostick, didn’t any of these assholes watch Little Shop of Horrors?
GM crops created superweed, say scientists
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
(via mofi)
Shovel in the gut
My, oh my. Real life is just a parody of commie propaganda in North Korea: Bodyguards & Mass Games
No TP for the Bunghole
Someone was cool enough to rip three entire seasons of Beavis & Butthead and upload to mininova. The thing is, all the music videos are edited out so each episode is less than ten minutes long, and the guys are left head banging and air guitaring to… nothing!
What’s the point?
Serious letdown.
Rubber Johnny
From the official site: “Johnny is a hyperactive, shape-shifting mutant child, kept locked away in a basement.”
Some crazy, brilliant stuff by Chris Cunningham and Aphex Twin: LINK
Despite Everything
It’s like the greatest toilet reading material of all time. After all, what’s more depressing than reading about those in search of punk as you take a short respite from your normal, white collar salaryman existence (until you remember that this is existence is actually pretty damn unusual for an American). Anyway, it’s been a steady diet of Cometbus for the past couple weeks, since the last of my post-WWII Japan books ran out. I’m still very interested in that subject, but have pretty much run out of the good material on it. Nothing left now but to write a book on it.
Illustrator Revisited
Just thought I’d show how low the demand for my mad graphic design skillz has fallen. I insisted on making a No Trespassing sign for our department, because it gave me a chance to leave my mark.
On a related note, I may start marketing custom-brushed t-shirts and bondage gear. Nam’s Japanese calligraphy sensei is keen on helping out with this project, and with me heading up the design effort, we are sure to appeal to at least one person… More on this as it develops.
Remote Chinese hospital proves its irrelevance
I believe the secret words are, “Sorry we fucked your grandmothers, now can you save my life?”
LINK
First restaurants, then hospitals. I think the only thing left to do is CLOSE THE WHOLE FUCKING COUNTRY. Wouldn’t that be a shame.