And the world keeps right on turning...

My boss is "no longer with the company"

This New Yorker Cartoon is basically what happened. (Without the instant new hire)

“How soon can you start?”

p.s.

John Maynard Berkeley, Calif. submitted this winning caption

Random awesome stuff to enjoy!

Yes the world is full of crazy messed up crap my friends. Not all of it is cute and from Japan! No, no! Quite a bit of it is from America (most of it in fact). This week is insane weirdness I've found on the net.....

Yea I know it's small. For a better shot go here (http://www.barnaclepress.com/cmcvlt/MickeyMouse/mm301024.jpg)

It's Mickey Mouse trying to commit suicide. I sh*t you not.

OK.... So maybe this puppy is from Japan. But isn't this just like a sign from God that Kawaii and all things lovable are Japanse? Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen? I hope they breed this dog until his genetics run rampent. I will pay top yen for a heart puppy! (PS this wasn't some weird doggy experiment, just a natural acident which makes it 110% more amazing.

My next piece of horrible weirdness comes from an American based website Yahoo.com (which I love). They're using an article (probably from Reuters) which covers the false David Beckem walking around L.A. and :gasp: messing with peoples heads! Someone actually said this folks:

"Officials realized the calls were a hoax after Department of Children and Family Services staffers grilled the caller.
"It just smacked of bogusity," department spokeswoman Louise Grasmehr said."

Yep. Only in America could a government official use the grammer of a 9th grade cheerleader.

GOOOOO America!

Harlem Children's Zone Project

This fall hundreds of NYC yellow taxi cabs will be competing with the fall foliage for the title of most colorful thanks to the work of POLO volunteers and Harlem school kids. We painted flowers to be mounted on top of the cabs, assisting the kids, and carrying canvases down narrow halls all the meanwhile trying to thwart to wind which wanted nothing more then to blow the pictures over. I ended up very messy and tired, but also happy to have contributed even in a small way. I couldn't help but beam when a mentally challenged boy took great pride in signing his name, or a young girl asked me about college and I assured her she could do it to. So this fall if you see a flower-power taxi, hail it and be proud!

Shin Chan

It's been a while since I've posted anything actually kawaii, so here you go: Shin Chan! Or better known in Japan as Crayon Shin Chan because he looks like he was drawn with crayons. The series follows the antics of five-year-old Shinnosuke Nohara and his parents, neighbors, friends, dog and many others. The series is set in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Shin loves to show his bare butt, his mom worries about her small boobs, and his dad likes nothing more than to drink beer and cower around.

I LOVE IT!

I only recently found out about Shin when Adult Swim began running the brilliantly translated English version of the show. It turns out however that Shin began in 1992, has been translated into countless languages and has his own movies and books! I tried to find some online but alas no luck. If you know how to obtain some Shin Chan DVD's with English subtitles or some books so I can practice my Japanese please email me the info!

OW!

When this man decided to run with the bulls you just know this was not the photo he wanted spread in the media!

Today in Afro American Stereotyping

Poor Diana,

her lifetime achievement award and they publish a shot of her looking like a blow-up doll

I just can't put my finger on why this reminds me of stripping...

You can tell by his hand on her boob he respects her

Do'h! I threw out my back with all my booty shakin!

The bravest woman in the world (the one in red)

Somewhere this image encouraged a young black woman to go to college.

Here are some great photos from the BET awards last night. In my opinion the only woman here who doesn't look like a pimp'n ho bag is Mo'Nique who somehow had the massive balls to dance next to a half dressed Bouncy... I mean Beyounce.

Thar she blows! 0.2

Poor Izzy Blow. She isn't even cold in the ground and Style.com is ranting about how hats are coming back and not giving Izzy a smidgen of credit (http://www.style.com/trends/blogs/style_file/ scroll down) . If it isn't bad enough Style.com goes and shows the most awful hatastrophies from the ascot. Some of these are so bad even Izzy would of said they "blowed".

This looks like some kind of alien tube

And the hat's awful too.

I can picture Izzy in this.

Look, my hat is pooping feathers!

If I show you my bum will you ignore the nightmare on my head?

Someone tell this woman a peacock died on her head.

My only memory of the ascot is tied into my high school roommate Elizabeth. She was so rich that despite her family being based in Hong Kong they kept a mansion and Rolls Royce in England for their brief yearly ascot visits.

Insert baby girl / Asia joke HERE

God it's even effected the marine life!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070621/ap_on_re_as/japan_baby_manta;_ylt=AjYuZouokbvxRvTm2goI7XQBxg8F

Hello Kitty weddings!

I am no stranger to the concept of Hello Kitty Weddings. I can't pretend the idea of throwing on a glittering kimono and marrying an equally offset gentleman in front of Hello Kitty isn't 100% appealing. Here are two videos on YouTube of people who took the plunge Hello Kitty style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S00MI_yPXXY&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfQ5I2FEFZo&mode=related&search=

and if you decide to actually go ahead with it (and speak/ know someone who speaks Japanese)

Here is the site that can make it a reality!

http://www.hankyu-hotel.com/news/kittywedding.html

Hello Kitty Hell

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Kawaiitastic!

OmiGAWD- Look what just came out only in Japan (tragic) the Lavie G Hello Kitty Model made by NEC! A laptop encrusted with swarovski jewels and HELLO FREAKIN KITTY!

Ok maybe I'm a tad excited. Here are all the photos I could collect. Since it's only available in Japan (designed to appeal to young women who get their summer bonuses around now) I won't be getting one anytime soon. But hot damn if they bring them to the US.....

There's a reason they call them "drag QUEENS" not empress

Well our royal fashion parade has come to an end with the Japanese empress walking the social runway in London. Note the kimono-esq suit - nice but hardly going out with a bang when one is meeting HRH! Check out the frock on old Liz- I haven't seen her in anything so lively, well, ever. And no hat on her head? What is this- a nudist colony?

As for this picture I find it very touching- could it be that in their 70's, despite a marriage that has most definitely been pestered by countless geisha, this couple is still very much in love?

Must be those little hats!

I knew it!

Classic Beauty

Finding pictures of Empress Michiko in her youth is not easy. Which is a shame because damn did she put the aii! in kawaii. Apparently she was the first empress who was not from an imperial family. She was considered beautiful, friendly and intelligent. Indeed she became popular among Japanese. The fist time she was introduced to the Japanese by it was by the photo below.

Check out that amazing kimono! In this next picture we see her and the emperor at their wedding standing like a couple of dolls. Both beautiful, and even a bit scary?

Aso desu ka!

I have to give Empress Michiko some credit. At first I thought her never ending parade of the same hat was a little beneath her until I realized her outfits were color coordinated to the country she was visiting. And even her "boxy" shaped suits I now realize are shaped to mimic a kimono (genius!). Here she is in Lithuanian and Estonia strutting her stuff.

You go girl!

Oops!

Estonia... the latest look?

Now in Estonia, the Japanese emperor and empress continue their European tour.

At first I was bummed to see Empress Michiko is this ensemble which so clearly looks like the one she wore in Switzerland. Ok, cute hat and the suit fits well but.....

And then I discovered there was meaning behind her outfit (so very Japanese)

"Michiko was wearing a dress-suit in blue, black and white, the colours of the Estonian national flag."Japan is a country that pays a lot of attention to symbols, so it's very telling that the empress was dressed in the Estonian national colours," Urmas Reinsalu, head of the parliament's Estonia-Japan friendship group, said on television."

Respect for other nations expressed via fashion- very cool indeed!

Clearly Michiko's badass digs have the Estonian first lady's panties in a knot. Get a look at that icy expression!!! Then again can you blame her? What is she wearing? Is she the first lady or the cleaning lady?

Fit for a queen

As the empress of Japan continues her (fashion) tour of Europe we find her in Switzerland- rocking a tres kawaii chapeau with the Swiss queen and then a beautiful (if not disappointingly plain) kimono.

C'mon your highness, it's the spring, throw on some color!

The head that bears the crown....

I am so royally inclined. Just look at this badass chapeau on the empress of Japan! It looks scarily family to hats I have been donning as of late. Tres kawaii with a hint of style. Ageless- now that's doing the queen scene in style!

Choose your battles

I am missing Japanese class right now as we speak. It is heart breaking because I don't even need to be here right now. But I left the office early for the past 2 days and well, Ellen specifically asked me to stay late today. So I picked my battle and here I am. I will call my Japanese proffesser in the morning and ask her if she can fax me the homework.
Iie ii!

A dark good bye

"Did fashion muse Isabella poison herself?"

This is the question posed by the UK Daily Mail. Apparently poor Isabella Blow was found dead and while she may indeed have been battling cancer she was also battling deep depression and had made numerous attempts at committing suicide. One attempt- where she jumped off a bridge- left her feet broken. Unable to wear stilettos Manolo Bhlanik and Christian Louboutin sent her flats. My god the woman even attempted suicide in style!

Izzy was the former assitant to fashion shark Anna Wintour. A role I can relate to all to well.

Says the Daily Mail, "Blow began her fashion career in 1981 as Wintour's assistant.
"In a world that's largely driven by corporate culture she was a joy to have," Wintour added. "She was not too good at getting to the office before 11am, but then she would arrive dressed as a maharaja or an Edith Sitwell figure.
"I don't think she ever did my expenses but she made life much more interesting."

Did Izzy take her own life? According the the reports coming in it seems likely. What a dark end to a bright life.

Well this Blows

Isabella Blow has died. Some news dribbling out of the UK say it was cancer. I am devastated that one of my great fashion icons has passed. Isabella was just plain cool. No if ands or buts. She was renowned for discovering McQueen, Kate Moss and Sophie Dahl (to name a few). She refused to let the hat die, always wearing one in very geisha-esqe styles. As we see here where a small Japanese town has sprung up in her locks.

I remember working for the collection and being told she was a freak- when I defended her I didn't get that much push back however... even in the world of prep there can be appreciation for the outlandish. If it is true and cancer did take this kawaii maven then I am sorry for it. I will wear my kooky chapeaus with pride and miss this diva of design and style.