In 2007 the Seika Dormitory in central Tokyo went up in flames. The roof was burnt away and flames roared up the building’s old stairways and licked at rooms full of possessions, melting and burning some unrecognizably, leaving others coated in a thick mask of sticky black ash. Skeletal roof girders remain. Did anyone die in the Dormitory fire? I don’t know. I hope not, but so many of the rooms were left with so much stuff that seemed still in good-ish condition (heaps of books, vinyl records, clothes, diaries, photo albums) that I have to wonder. The dormitory was … Read More
Vanilla Ice Second & more Japangrish
Perhaps you’ve always wondered. Perhaps you used to protest to your friends until they branded you the group’s uncool pariah- “No, but listen, a Vanilla Ice comeback really WOULD be awesome.” At which point you probably broke into song: “Alright, stop, collaborate and listen-“ I recommend you listen to Ice himself while reading the rest of this post. Ice on? Alright, let’s get down to it. What would a Vanilla Ice comeback look like? Japan has come up with an answer. Was this intended as a sequel to the actual Vanilla Ice? Who knows. Perhaps an inducement for all Vanilla … Read More
Hackman Gachapon
You can buy odd things in a Gachapon. Perhaps attention too often goes to the wadded-up knicker-vending machines (so sought-after these days), and not often enough to those cute little machines sitting so innocently right at your kids’ eye level. In the past I’ve experimented and come up with the rear end of a fire truck and a piece of railway bridge. So we are incentivised to buy more. Then I glimpsed these little beggars. They cannot be for kids. They are some kind of post-ironic jab at uber-too-cool-for-school hipsters, phone donglies that scream ‘I listen to Tragically Hip’ while … Read More
Ruins of the Unmuseum
The Unmuseum (AKA the Museum of Unnatural Mystery) is like an online Ripley’s Believe It or Not, stuffed full of myth, ruin, and intrepid history ranging from tales of pterosaurs in Texas to mechanical computers built before the birth of Christ. It’s the perfect place for armchair Indian Joneses, or thriller writers seeking the next Dan Brown conspiracy plot. Site curator and author Lee Krystek has been building his unmuseum online for well over 10 years. Back in 2000 it got some great reviews and was listed in a top 50 best sites list by Popular Science, however it’s look … Read More
Orange Injection Candy
Drugs designed for kids often taste like candy. I remember getting to love the taste of the cold remedy Sudafed, and looking forward to taking it- lovely goopy syrupy sugar. If I could’ve chugged it freestyle, I very well might have (and actually did once, when my sister and I sat under the kitchen table around 6 years old and sampled the delicacies of the medicine cabinet). Now one Japanese candy company has picked up on this trend, turned the tables, and started marketing candy as a drug. The Japanese says- Syringe Water Candy. I saw this delicacy when I … Read More
Ruins of The Secret World
There is a city on the moon. 11 days are missing. The Earth is hollow. The tower of Babel never fell. These are just a few of the many premises of The Secret World, a stunning new MMORPG game that promises to plunge players deep into a Lovecraftian realm of mythology risen, a secret world the X-files only ever hinted at. MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, a game played online in a shared fantasy world like World of Warcraft. The Secret World, as yet unreleased, looks utterly awesome, with a taste of any and all mythological flavors- … Read More
The Ruins of Nuclear Winter
Nuclear winter slathered down across the world like a rain of torrential lead paint, bowing our cities beneath it. Ceilings and structures collapsed under the deluge, walls crumbled, and humanity was washed away by a tide of toxic white sludge. Gerry Judah sculpts the apocalypse. He builds out minutely detailed architectural models of buildings, then destructs them with a flood of white paint- leaving the canvas pitted, scored, and crusted with ruins. The sculptures are then hung on their sides in galleries, where viewers can peer deep through the blasted roofs and into the hollow bones of his work. A … Read More
Japan’s sexy Coca Cola
It’s not often this site gets sexy. Occasionally you’ll get your dabblings in Coppertone bikini girls or your Girls Generation Cheetos, but never explicitly sexy. Here though we’ll get explicit. We’ll get sexy. If you’re a minor, avert your gaze. Everyone else, buckle up and batten down, cos here we go: Phew, somebody get a dehumidifier in here, it is steaming UP. OK, so maybe that picture is a little deceptive. It looks a lot like a regular convenience store shelf, packed with delicious nutritious soft drinks. From right to left we see Coke, CC Lemon, Oolong tea, and Japanese … Read More
The Ruins of Ender’s Game
Orson Scott Card’s brilliant novel Ender’s Game is not widely known for its ruins. You’re rather more likely to read it and be blown away by the sheer force of Ender’s personality, by the twisted morality of the story’s central conceit, or by the genius with which Card orchestrates his entire Battle School world. But there are ruins. One of them in particular stands out, and throughout the novel we see its creation, its dessication, and at last its final resting state; transliterated across time and space for the novel’s finale. If you know Ender you’ll probably already know what … Read More
story craft #16 Flash-forward Openings
What do you think about stories that open with flash-forwards? Consider the movie Fight Club. Ed Norton brandishes a gun and conducts a bizarre conversation with Brad Pitt. They are in a dimly lit skyscraper looking out over a city’s night skyline. We are totally engaged and intrigued. What the F is going on? Who are these guys, and why are they talking like this? Smash cut- and we’re yanked back to the beginning. If we want answers to our questions, we’ll have to watch the whole movie. push / pull Let’s call this a pull opening, because it pulls … Read More