NPR listeners submitted what they thought were the best songs of the year, and NPR compiled the results here: NPR Listeners Pick The Year’s Best Music. You can also see the complete poll results.
Maybe I’m just out of touch with pop culture, but I actually hadn’t heard of a fair number [...]

I thought I’d written about Japan’s crazy vending machine costume before, but perhaps it was back in the archives of my blog that disappeared in the server debacle awhile back. Anyhow, I’m posting (or reposting?) it on request.

There are a couple of cultural details you have to be familiar with in order for this [...]

I’m not sure what he is smiling about in the background as they’re taking the journalist away… In many parts of the Middle East, shoe-throwing is one of the harshest gestures one can make. Note that shoe-throwing also made news in 2003 when Iraqis threw their footwear at the toppled statue of Saddam Hussein.
See [...]

The Vocaloid program sounds best in Japanese (what else would you expect from a singing synthesizer from Yamaha?), but it’s actually pretty entertaining to hear it sing in English. It definitely sings English with a classically Japanese accent. The clip above is from the song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”

I’m constantly amazed with what you can find (by accident) on YouTube. Here is the “The Fast Food Song” by British pop group the Fast Food Rockers. Can you believe the song managed to reach #2 in the UK charts in June 2003? I think it’s hilarious.

I’ve always loved reading and have over the years accumulated more books than I really know what to do with–meaning that I’ve run out of bookshelf space. And yes, I have seriously considered buying an e-book device, but I’m still not sold on any of the major brands on the market today.
The [...]