I lived in Japan during the years 2006-07, and while I wasn’t there long, I truely loved the country. This past week I’ve been sitting here, safe and sound, thousands of miles away, watching the horror of the earthquake. I’ve felt helpless, wishing I could do something. I decided that the least I could do would be to encourage you to donate by selling some of the photos I took during the time I spent there. Right now there are only eight, but I might put a couple more up eventually.

The photos can be purchased here.

100% of profits (approximately $40 from each sale) made from these prints will go to Architecture for Humanity’s Japan Earthquake Reconstruction Fund. The reason I chose them is because I wanted to pick a charity that might get overlooked, while the Red Cross is wonderful, they get the lion’s share of the money being tossed around. Also, I’m a pretty small operation, it might take awhile for a decent sized chunk of cash to get raised. I’m willing to bet that they will still be needing money for that fund in the months to come.

If you buy one, please let me know who you are. If you’d rather just donate to Architecture for Humanity, without worrying about buying the photos, (you can do that here) let me know as well. Either way, I want to thank you.

Another worthwhile charity is Second Harvest, essentially the Japanese version of the Foodbank.

I needed something to get the feeling of that last album off me. Malcom McLaren’s Fans is (I will quote the ENTIRE wikipedia article on it):

an attempt by to fuse opera with 1980s R&B and contains adaptations of pieces from famous operas such as Madam Butterfly and Carmen.

As an “attempt”, I’d say it was successful. It’s a pretty safe bet to say this probably sounded bonkers in 1985. Now, we’re pretty blasé about mashups and genre bouncing. It’s rare for early attempts to sound so well put together, I rather enjoyed the listen. I never really listened to much of Malcolm McLaren’s music, but that’s going to change. It’s probably of interest to some of you that the producer, Stephen Hague went on to produce The Pet Shop Boys first album and multiple albums by New Order as well as other synthpop bands.

Fans is a surprisingly strong album, for all it’s pretense. I’ll be listening to this again. I had a hard time choosing a song to link to for this, so I went with the most recognizable of the operas.

Carmen (l’oiseau rebelle)

And here’s the video for Madam Butterfly:

Dear friend,
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They have a good reputation , many good feedback,and the fast delivery speed.
Now, the company enlarges its extent .Thanks for the new and old customers ‘ supporting , These goods are sold at a discount., a lot of friends have already bought the products from the company , and they are praised the goods, I have ordered a apple laptops,
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http://www.photofocus.com

http://www.mydl.me

That’s all for now.

It’s called a Zaisu and it looks like this:

or this:

I would love to have a Wave Chair:

But I think I’d even settle for this:

]]> http://myownbiggestfan.org/2008/01/07/new-books/feed/ 0 http://myownbiggestfan.org/2006/10/13/chabudaigaeshi-podcast/ http://myownbiggestfan.org/2006/10/13/chabudaigaeshi-podcast/#comments Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:01:20 +0000 Mason http://wordpress.myownbiggestfan.org/blog/?p=273 I know, I said it many times that I am not a fan of podcasting. What you have here is not a “podcast” it is a means to an end. I want to show my friends what music I am listening to, this is an easy way to do it. Subscribe, enjoy. Email me when you like what you hear.

http://chabudaigaeshi.libsyn.com/rss

To subscribe, copy the link above. In iTunes, click Advanced>Subscribe to Podcast and paste the link into the box

Quote from the article:

“It’s a for-profit product that allows you to exercise your conscience.”

It is a tag that you buy that makes you look like you care about emissions control even though you drive a two ton wildebeest of a car. Buy your conscience rather than actually have one.

Green tags.

It’s a concept only a Ferengi could come up with.

from bOINGbOING.

– from Pixelsurgeon, as usual.