Domo Love

I've just put all the Domo-kun clips up on YouTube, for everyone to enjoy.

For the unenlightened among us, Domo-kun (どーもくん) is the mascot of Japan's NHK television station, appearing in several 30 second stop-motion sketches shown as station identification during shows.

A strange monster-like creature born from an egg, Domo is short, fuzzy and brown with beady black eyes and an open mouth revealing pointy teeth. He lives in an underground cave with Usajii (a combination of the words usagi (ウサギ, usagi), rabbit, and jii-chan (じいちゃん, jii-chan), grandpa), a wise old rabbit who loves to watch TV and drink tea. Also in the cave live two bats, a mother and daughter named Shinobu and Morio. Shinobu has a drinking problem. The other main character in the shorts is a weasel girl named Ta-chan. She is 17 years old, wants to be a model in Tokyo, and is always using technology (TV, cellphones, cameras, etc). TVs play a major part in all of the shorts.

The name "Domo" was acquired during the second episode of his show in which a TV announcer said, ども、こんにちは (dōmo konnichiwa, どうも、こんにちは), which is a formal greeting meaning something along the lines of, "Well, hello there!", or "Hello, Domo!", and thus is a convenient dajare. The kun suffix on "Domo-kun" is a friendly title often used with young males. Domo-kun's favorite food is beef with potatoes in a soup and he has a strong dislike for apples (an unexplained mystery in his DNA).

Domo-kun is known to pass gas repeatedly when nervous or in a bad mood. Domo-kun cannot close his mouth and is fond of the band Guitar Wolf. He dreams of flying.

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Saddam Hussein Executed

The Iraqi Government has confirmed former president Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging at 2pm AEDT today.

Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi confirmed the news to the BBC. "I believe so, yes. He has been executed. It has been officially announced that he has been executed," Mr Abbawi said, speaking by telephone to BBC News 24.

US-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra and Arabic satellite channel Arabiya also reported the execution had taken place. Arabiya said Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander were also executed by hanging today.

The Iraqi Government had kept details of its plans to execute Saddam shrouded in secrecy amid concerns it could spark a violent backlash from his former supporters with Iraq on the brink of civil war. The execution will delight Iraq's majority Shiites, who faced oppression during Saddam's three-decade rule, but may anger some in his Sunni minority. Some Kurdish leaders had sought a delay so they too could see justice for the man they accuse of genocide against them.

The former Iraqi president, ousted in April 2003 by a US-led invasion, was convicted in November of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shiite villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982. An appeals court upheld the death penalty on Tuesday and the Iraqi Government rushed through the procedures to hang him by the end of the year and before the Eid al-Adha holiday that starts this weekend, coinciding with the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Earlier, senior officials told Reuters they were expecting to see the former president hang between 5.30 and 6am local time. US television showed scenes of cheering and flag-waving Iraqi-Americans in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn in Michigan, home to the largest US Arab-American community. Saddam's conviction on November 5 was hailed by US President George W Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the invasion almost four years ago.

With US public support for the war slumping as the number of American dead approaches 3,000, Washington is likely to welcome the death of Saddam, despite misgivings among many allies about capital punishment. But the hanging could complicate efforts by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to heal Iraq's sectarian divisions with violence spiralling out of control and threatening to pitch the country into full-scale civil war.

Once the belligerent strongman of the Middle East, Saddam's power crumbled when US tanks swept into Baghdad in April 2003. He fled and was captured in December that year by US soldiers who found him hiding in a hole near his home town of Tikrit. During his three decades in power, Saddam was accused of widespread oppression of political opponents and genocide against Kurds in northern Iraq. His execution means he will never face justice on those charges.

Defiant to the end, Saddam insisted during his trial that he was still the president of Iraq. He said in a letter written after his conviction in November that he offered himself as a "sacrifice". "If my soul goes down this path (of martyrdom) it will face God in serenity," he wrote in the letter.

ABC World News

RIP James Brown

The Godfather of Soul died today. He was 73. James Brown was one of the most influential figures in American pop culture history. Link to Wikipedia bio, and here's coverage in the NYT. Here are some links to vintage video of him in performance: Eyesight, Super Bad, I Feel Good, It's A Man's World, Please Please, Sex Machine, at the Olympia, Soul Power, Ed Sullivan, and an unusual TV interview (shorter clip here) Mr. Brown did when he was in a chemically altered state of consciousness after having been released from jail.

Ouch

I woke up this morning with a killer migraine. Even with a couple of extra strong codeine, it wouldn't go away. Now it appears to have subsided but I still feel like shit. It's a relatively hot Monday afternoon, I'm obviously not at work and I'm bored. I have so many different things to do before Christmas, but I can't seem to get much done with them.

Demetri

When did Microsoft employ Demetri Martin as cartoon spokesperson for Vista?

Our Daily Bread

I've just been reminded about Our Daily Bread. I saw this film at the last MIFF. It's horrific. Go see it. A whole documentary with no voice-over, showing scene after scene of industrial food production on a massive scale. The meat stuff is disgusting enough, but even the vegetable production creeped me out. I want a local grocer again.

Exhausted

I am so fuckin tired. In the last week I've been getting up at 7:30 and working til 6. I know, I know, that's what everyone has to do at some point in their life, but fuck it's hard to get used to after years of part-time work and being a sporadic worker.
So far I've worked on; Soccer Magazine, Australian Golf Magazine, Taekwondo Magazine, Blitz Martial Arts Magazine, Kickboxing Magazine, Women's Fitness & Health Magazine and Natural Health Magazine. Thus bringing me almost up to date with the full range of titles at my new place of employment. I'm still hanging out to work on Ironman, otherwise known as Beefcake.
Hot.
But tiring.

Actual English subtitles used in Hong Kong films

1. I am damn unsatisfied to be killed in this way.
2. Fatty, you with your thick face have hurt my instep.
3. Gun wounds again?
4. Same old rules: no eyes, no groin.
5. A normal person wouldn't steal pituitaries.
6. Damn, I'll burn you into a BBQ chicken!
7. Take my advice, or I'll spank you without pants.
8. Who gave you the nerve to get killed here?
9. Quiet or I'll blow your throat up.
10. You always use violence. I should've ordered glutinous rice chicken.
11. I'll fire aimlessly if you don't come out!
12. You daring lousy guy.
13. Beat him out of recognizable shape!
14. I have been scared shitless too much lately.
15. I got knife scars more than the number of your leg's hair!
16. Beware! Your bones are going to be disconnected.
17. The bullets inside are very hot. Why do I feel so cold?
18. How can you use my intestines as a gift?
19. This will be of fine service for you, you bag of the scum. I am sure you will not mind that I remove your manhoods and leave them out on the dessert flour for your aunts to eat. [sic, of course]
20. Yah-hah, evil spider woman! I have captured you by the short rabbits and can now deliver you violently to your gynecologist for a thorough examination.