UPSTAIRS FOR THINKING

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41353652009-12-09T07:51:12.163+09:00UPSTAIRS FOR THINKINGALL THE WAY FROM TOKYOelliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.comBlogger359125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-36983520321410542852009-11-21T12:43:00.003+09:002009-11-21T12:52:37.214+09:00The wall

Great escapes. Stasi files revisited. Life is a yawn. Sixty hours of terror: Mumbai. The philosophy of journalism.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-8776077839535950472009-11-02T13:46:00.002+09:002009-11-02T13:54:05.730+09:00Back in Business

Been a while. A few interesting reads as follows... An epidemic of fear: the vaccination debate. Are liberals smarter than conservatives? The revolutions of 1989. Dying languages. Bobby Fischer: genius and idiot. Monsters and the moral imagination. Battle of Agincourt revisited.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-15627521514267705092009-07-27T12:01:00.002+09:002009-07-27T12:03:51.609+09:00Moa

Moa, a mythical magazine that was not eaten by the Maori in New Zealand because it never really existed in the first place.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-67101798847046416712009-07-27T11:43:00.002+09:002009-07-27T11:58:14.631+09:00The Beop

The beop has landed. Tokyo vs the crows. Drunk people yoga positions.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-76031898042459990142009-07-07T12:34:00.004+09:002009-07-07T12:44:57.050+09:00"I Pee" Checks

Debito Arudou discusses an invasive new tactic that is being carried out by police in Japan: an "I Pee" check. For a helpful outline of your rights, see his What To Do If column...

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-22614568779732479782009-06-18T23:02:00.003+09:002009-06-18T23:13:52.090+09:00Remaking Kids Art

This is amazing: A South Korean artist who takes a painting that has been done by a child and re-creates them in a photo.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-57879976233288013162009-05-19T10:55:00.006+09:002009-05-19T11:08:16.898+09:00Sakura revisited

Nakameguro in bloom (via Jean Snow). Jeremy Clarkson puts the boot into Honda's new hybrid Insight, a car so Biblically terrible he considered driving it into a tree on purpose. The world's best illusion, really! What is it really like to be a baby?

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-17654824567984384322009-05-05T10:53:00.003+09:002009-05-05T10:59:48.693+09:00Alone in Tokyo

Alone in Tokyo is a short film by Philip Bloom that manages to successfully capture the ambience of the big smoke without anyone uttering a word.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-6354275195112013132009-05-05T08:16:00.003+09:002009-05-05T08:27:43.783+09:00!!!

Why e-mails are littered with exclamation marks! Most hated font type. Susan Boylemania. Dancing parrots. Attribution lacking. Music as torture condemned. The neuroscience of illusion.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-13200461729509337922009-04-22T19:50:00.002+09:002009-04-22T21:07:52.404+09:00The returner

After a long period of self-imposed exile, I return to Hanoi on Friday for the much-vaunted MAG Music Festival on Saturday. Should be a riot. Not literally, Mr Boy in Green. That's Billy Bragg speak for "life is beautiful." Looking forward to catching up with some older friends over a bia hoi and plate of dau ran. Links of note: Baby brainwashing. Facebook of world leaders.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-37632890865834529772009-04-05T18:53:00.003+09:002009-04-05T19:16:33.510+09:00With a Cherry on Top

Well the cherry blossoms are officially in full bloom, and I've been able to spend a bit of time outdoors over the past two weeks instead of being couped up in front of the computer. Thanks to all those who came down to the THREE G (vol.4) at the end of last month, and especially to DJ Ken Frowning, who came up from Osaka and made the gig all the more worth while. Links of interest: The Facebook

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-10635052667912995782009-03-16T11:37:00.006+09:002009-03-16T12:14:10.641+09:00THREE G (Part Quatre)

After the raging success of the last installment of THREE G in February, Mssrs Smart, Cox, Stubbings and MUC have come up with something a little different this time around -- our very first guest DJ.DJ Ken Frowning (Old Man's Beard Must Go!, London/Osaka) cut his teeth on a dilapidated mixer in Acton Town, London, some time back in the '90s (remember them?) and hasn't looked back since. His

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-85844050235221165222009-03-08T21:16:00.002+09:002009-03-08T21:34:14.846+09:00The Paper Chase

Preparing the newspaper obituary. Science mysteries. Cut-and-paste writing. Flower, a video game where you can hang out with, er, flowers. Why doctors go to work sick. Lies and books you've not read. Lost in the archives. How strong is a chimpanzee, really? Small talk in the Stone Age.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-10533522233637858162009-02-17T00:31:00.002+09:002009-02-17T00:32:34.430+09:00Taking His Medicine

The rumour mill has been going into overdrive today following the release of footage that shows Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa looking decidedly worse for wear in front of reporters at a G7 press conference over the weekend. Some claim Nakagawa was in fact drunk at the event (and he was seen drinking at least one glass of wine before speaking), but the minister defended his behaviour

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-14644153842997098982009-02-15T11:24:00.003+09:002009-02-15T12:00:26.912+09:00The Two Sides of Joaquin Phoenix

Is this what hip-hop can do to a man? Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman. Three years earlier.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-47636302036405516702009-02-15T10:52:00.002+09:002009-02-15T11:09:01.911+09:00It's All Fun & Games Until Someone Gets Hurt

How old are you? Why do young male writers love icky, tough guy deadbeats? Cheating death. Missed the train?

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-46195075768266183412009-01-26T19:45:00.002+09:002009-01-26T21:03:17.438+09:00The Impossible House Guest

How NOT to write a novel. How much do you know about Edgar Allan Poe? He smashed the china, soiled the sheets, sunbathed nude and was either drunk or stoned -- Arthur Rimbaud was an impossible house guest. The mind behind procrastination. The day newspapers died.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-43260865333540323592009-01-19T20:47:00.004+09:002009-01-19T21:21:25.589+09:00Ask Snowy

Of course Tintin's gay. Ask Snowy. Who checks the spell-checkers? She stole his heart so he gave her his kidney. And now they're getting divorced, he wants it back.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-33179546185901967412009-01-16T07:50:00.003+09:002009-01-16T07:53:23.895+09:00Be Seeing You

Patrick McGoohan is dead at 80. Number Six, be seeing you...From The Guardian: "Patrick McGoohan's finest moment, for which he deserves to be remembered as long as people are watching moving images on little boxes, was undoubtedly 'The Prisoner' – the psychedelically experimental late-1960s series whose influence is still tangible, but whose vision was far too radical for its time. Without 'The

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-91161383120098498122009-01-05T12:27:00.011+09:002009-01-05T13:13:05.286+09:00THREE G

A few friends of mine throw a house/techno/breaks party at a small club called OVO in Naka-Meguro every couple of months and have been kind enough to allow me to play a few uplifting tunes from Aotearoa at the next installment on January 24 to kick things off from 22:00 before the real beats begin. Entrance is a paltry Y1,500 (with one free drink), so it's not going to blow your New Year budget.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-36054010461743477402009-01-04T11:12:00.002+09:002009-01-04T11:28:28.916+09:00License to Grill

Burger King perfume (pour hommes, presumably). End of the road for VHS. The man responsible for helping President-elect Barack Obama to write history.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-38909754678350266272008-12-17T01:17:00.003+09:002008-12-17T01:30:45.193+09:00The Great Escape

In Camp No. 14, the North Korean political prison where Shin Dong-hyuk was born and where he says he watched the hanging of his mother, inmates never saw a picture of Kim Jong Il. Why publishers fail. When writers fail. Jezebels with a Cause.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-6719857176721936642008-12-02T01:01:00.006+09:002008-12-02T08:09:23.515+09:00Six and the Cities (a NZ joke)

Think of sex addiction on a par with tennis addiction - except only one of them sells books. The Bad Sex Award. Everything you need to know about Hitler's missing testicle. Britain on top in casual sex league. From ancient Pompeiian baths to modern Swiss spas, there's always been something dirty about getting clean. PLUS: Edible fantasies.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-81284814519473062722008-11-24T00:56:00.003+09:002008-11-24T01:06:46.925+09:00They See Red, They See Red...

George Bush's nostrils. Animals speak in colour. The Ubiquitous Child Trap: Over-parenting.

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135365.post-43601924337678343182008-11-06T19:13:00.003+09:002008-11-07T12:21:19.118+09:00When Animals Attack

Oslo sent me an educational link that offers an excellent primer on what to do if you ever encounter a rhino that has escaped from a zoo. I can't guarantee, however, that such tactics would work equally well in a dark alley. For one thing, you're not likely to have a gargantuan tennis court net with you...

elliotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06980716674120362632noreply@blogger.com0