I don't know why I keep watching true Aussie crime stories when I'm at home by myself late at night. It might be ok if I was snuggled up with someone, who could take my mind of it after, but as it is I keep freaking myself out. I'm a fool. Last week it was the bodies in the barrels, which I never paid much attention to when it happened as I'm not particularly interested in the morbid details. For example, when I'd heard it was people on pensions that had been killed, I always assumed it had been old people. Of course, they were young victims on disability pensions, and others, and getting to see the tortures re-enacted, well wasn't that just fun and dandy. Particularly when its interspersed with footage of the rental homes around Salisbury & Elizabeth, an area I'm quite familiar with. Deeply unsettling. Then tonight I stupidly got sucked into watching "Schapelle Corby: The Hidden Truth", and like the foolish pawn I am, I now have to watch the s...

I like these two arty videos, the first is a little funky/creepy, as if someone turned The Ring into a dance clip. the second gloriously strange, and so obviously also Japanese. The last is just plain cool. Bring on the public intervention, bring on the street art! Awesome. MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo .

I have a couple of albums by Ken Ishii which I love, because they were a random purchase I made when I went on my high school trip to Japan. I selected them based solely on the cover art, and they turned out to be great. (They were prominently placed in the electro/dance section of the cd store, so I guess that was probably a good indicator too). That was yonkers ago, and I really should find out what he has been doing more recently, as I stumbled across this clip which is just delightful. Simple, clever and very effective, you won't look at space invaders the same again. Oh, and it's very Japanese.

They were just regular, down to earth, hard working mobile phones. Then one day they were shot in the line of duty, and their bodies secreted away for nefarious experiments. When they were switched back on they found they were no longer regular phones, they were Robo-Phones! These are actually working mobiles from Japan . The robot arms and legs, optional extras that you stick to the phone, were produced as a promotion for a new Japanese TV drama called Ketai Sousakan 7 . All I know is that ketai means mobile phone, beyond that I've no idea what its about. I don't know if this beats that other Japanese TV show promo product, green tea flavoured bread-in-a-can from a vending machine , but I do know that I won't be having nightmares about bread-in-a-can. At least I hope not! :|

When I was living in Japan on occasion I would have a meal at the 'Outback Aussie Steakhouse'. The establishment was recommended to me by Japanese students because it was 'Australian', though I can't say I was overwhelmed with nostalgia when I ate there. It's actually a chain of cheesy American dinners with lots of kitsch Australiana on the walls and nothing remotely Australian on the menu, other then steak, and we don't really own that, do we? Now Men's Health magazine has declared one of their dishes the worst food in America. The cheesy fries with ranch dressing starter (sooo Aussie) apparently has triple the recommended calories for a single meal. And its just a starter. Mmm, cheesy fries. Oh well, they didn't mention anything about the deep fried blossoming onion. Damn that was good.

From infinity to beyond on a paper plane? Research into space flight technology is taking an interesting detour as Japanese scientists test the resistance of specially treated paper to 250 degree heat and wind, so that they can make paper planes able to withstand re-entry into the atmosphere. The theory is that being lighter the paper planes would escape the worst of the friction and heat regular space shuttles endure. Of course they are only considering the technology for short unmanned flights, but you never know... In a few years we might be seeing the launch of Richard Branson's Virgin Origami .