Google Buzz Issues

Why did Google release Buzz without a closed beta as they traditionally have with their products; such as Gmail, Voice, and Wave?

McG, Murakami, and Dunst are Turning Japanese

Takashi Murakami and McG teamed up to film a cover music video of The Vapors' "Turning Japanese" in Akihabara starring Kirsten Dunst. A fun video and playful enough to not flog the dead horse of "Japan/Akihabara is different and weird!" Dunst turns in a good performance, and is obviously enjoying herself.

I think Murakami's genius is simplified by many observers in the current wash of anime-aesthetic hitting US shores. His visions manage time after time to be more compelling and interesting than the vast majority of commercial cash-ins on the anime boom.

I saw a display of his work at the Little Tokyo branch of the LACMA two years ago. His designs border on the psychadelic but manage to incorporate a bubbly, cute anime/cartoon feel that makes them digestible. I especially enjoyed how he takes the exaggerations of women and sexuality in anime aesthetics to the extreme conclusion. (see: "Hiropon")

Olympic Theme

I'm sure news shows in the US are using powerful, bombastic orchestral songs as their Olympic theme but here in Japan our news shows play this over Olympic montages:

Mechanical Tumor

Part of a Japanese installation art series, a realistic-looking tumor like mass is connected to a PC and inflates to approximate the CPU load of programs and running tasks.

Olympic News Bias?

Watching the Olympics outside of the US I've noticed that the events covered tend to be those in which the country I'm watching from performs the best in.

Androids versus Battle Mechs

My first video blog. I figure I'd try this format as it's less time-intensive. In this post I discuss the commercial and wartime application of robots and why I think the former is more likely to come true in the near future.

(Here is the documentary I reference in the video, provided by my friend nicopolitan.)