THE FRENZY:

18 years after making a huge leap from short segments aired between skits on the Tracy Ullman Show into a huge primetime phenomenon going head to head with the formerly uncontested Cosby Show, the Simpsons have finally released their first major motion picture. Simply titled The Simpsons Movie, it is one film that refuses to be buried underneath blockbuster summer hits like Transformers. With the extensive and increasingly unorthodox marketing campaigns out there these days, The Simpsons Movie has upped the ante quite a bit. Even the paranoid and anti-social who have sold their computers and televisions to fund their crystal meth habits will have the opportunity to view the fruits of these marketing labors. They’ll be bombarded  with advertisements when they ride their rusted pink huffy bike from the local pawn shop down to buy that sweet, sweet glass through an Irock Camaro window in the parking lot of their neighborhood 7-11 and Burger King locations.   (more…)

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I’m not usually a fan of you tube videos where someone takes video and syncs it up with other music.  I’ve got to admit, though, I can’t stop watching this one.  Watch the video to see how seemlessly DJ Unk’s track lines up with old Bob Fosse dance moves

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It’s 2007 and im finding that im being surrounded by the same fads that kept me entertained as a child. Transformers  the movie just came out as well as Spiderman, Teenage mutant ninja turtles, Dukes of hazard, and Miami vice. Im just waiting for someone to remake the A-team and Knight Rider. That’s just in the realm of movies. Walking around in Seattle, its impossible not to to notice the abundance of feathered mullets and glam rock hair styles, not to mention the slip on checkered vans with no socks. The eighties rocked and at the same time sucked balls.

Being a product of eighties, culture I developed certain interests such as GrandMaster Flash and the Furious 5, Casio Keyboards, Parachute pants, Atari, stompers, and, most of all, skateboarding.  I was an official, unanounced, silent partner of the legendary Bones Brigade.  My life, fo many years, consisted of nothing but school and skateboarding.  I was gleaming the cube.  In 1989, I saw “Back to the Future 2″ and was blown away by this revolutionary new  concept known only as “The Hoverboard.”

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It was a rainy Tuesday in Central Japan at 9pm, my first work day of the week had ended and it was time to go home.

I rode the rainy streets past the 99yen shop, past my bank, a few barber shops, money lenders and the Korean brothel, under the shelter of the light rail train tracks to the convenience store where three young women and four or five businessmen stood at the magazine rack.

The women were browsing fashion, the men browsing porno mags with no shame.  (more…)

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When I was 15 years old, I lived in the suburbs and would often go up to Seattle to visit my older brother.  It seemed like a cool place to be.  I would go eat at local staples such as Beth’s Cafe, home of the bottomless hash brown’s and the 12 egg omelette, and, being a growing boy, would even go to Gorditos and house the burrito Grande, which is the size of a human thigh, all by myself.

The one place that I really identified with in the city, however, wasn’t downtown or the University District, or even the hipster ass Capitol hill areas.  It was, actually, an area called Fremont, which has tagged itself, “The Center of the Universe”. It is often referred to, by those who don’t live there of course, as the bohemian or hippy area of the city.  It is also very well known for a tremendous sculpture under a bridge called The Fremont Troll, which brings tourism daily and is large enough to engulf a full-sized Volkswagon Beetle under one of it’s huge stone meat-hooks.  I was young, and used to believe that I would live there someday.  Guess what, I was right.

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So, here I am…celebrating America’s birthday in Japan. That’s right, my dear country turns 231 years old today and if you measure freedom by pints of ice cream consumed, dozens of donuts eaten, kegs of beer guzzled and number of TV channels available, it is safe to say that we are freer than ever.

Of course, this 4th of July is a little bit different for me. No barbecue, no hot-dogs or hamburgers on the grill, just me, myself, and I holding a sparkler in my left hand, a can of beer in my right hand and an American class A cigarette pursed between my lips, sitting on my porch, looking out over a parking lot in suburban Japan.

Sound exciting? Believe me, it’s not. (more…)

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