I just saw this picture. Is there really such a thing as black rice?
Thai jasmine
Indian basmati
Chinese sticky rice
Japanese hakumai
USA rice
Rice University
Anne Rice
Jerry Rice
Condoleezza Rice (blackness debatable)

A few weeks ago on a Friday, my friend Toru and I were getting ready to rage into the night in a blue haze of brews, LIITs* and Jägermeisters. Pre-rage he handed me a small green packet emblazened with Japanese, containing two fruit-loop-ish tablets (see above). That would be if the fruit was dirt (which [...]

Incidentally, Thanksgiving actually has an official German translation, Erntedankfest, which means something like Harvest-Thank-Feast.
Some things I am thankful for include:
my family
that I have a family
that they still claim me
a brother who helps me out with fantasy football
that I don’t have avian flu
that my water supply is not polluted with benzene like in Harbin, China
friends that [...]

Well my right eye that is, which is undergoing some kind of dryness-infection storm–this is also why I won’t be writing more than necessary–bright light is kinda painful too. I was hoping it would shape up by today, but then my collegue tells me it looks like some contagious ailment called callus that her kids [...]

What up y’all’s. Keeping with the post-Halloween theme, it is colder than a witch’s, er, Conway Twitty up in this piece. Today, it turns out, there is a holiday in Cambodia. You can learn more about it in my new weekly feature called Ben’s Tuna da Week (see ‘Pages’ at right –>).

     GARY BASEMAN
LISTENING: Atmosphere - Lucy Ford
At the end of October around dusk I was strolling around the block by the office, walking the large, white office dog. Entering a narrow passage between a wall and a park, I encountered a group of about seven tiny white-sheeted ghosts carrying plastic bags, followed by about as many [...]

NYC David Cross imposter getting it on. Cross emails tattoo description for ID-ing the real Cross.
Empire’s 50 Greatest Independent Films (Donnie Darko is #2). While you’re @ it: Premiere Magazine’s 100 Most Daring Movies Ever Made.
The Onion: Metal Council Convenes To Discuss ‘Metal Hand Sign’ Abuse
Pitchfork: The Worst Record Covers of All Time

OK, so this isn’t Berlin (it’s Paris, duh), but over the past few nights a few cars (and one motorcycle) got torched in and around the city–namely the districts of Prenzlauerberg, Wedding and Moabit. Represent. Even though car-torching is a popular past-time with Kreuzberg anarchists and alienated Ausländer, nobody is expecting la revolution any time [...]

Amateur backyard kung-fu with mortal combat effects and a Chemical Brother-ish soundtrack. Thanks Yuhang! And on the topic, if you haven’t seen this video of two Chinese adolescents destroying a Backstreet Boys song (or here), then you haven’t been on the internet for the last week. Lost interview with Bruce Lee + old screen [...]

Happy post-Halloween, pre-post-Radaman & November Fool’s Day. So, something else happened on the Deutsch political scene during my most recent blog sabbatical: Germany elected a new leader, a women, a (economically) conservative women at that, from the CDU (the Christian Democratic Union, Helmut Kohl’s party). Schroeder held onto a slight SPD (Social Democrats) grip until [...]