Few participate in 2008 Yamanote Halloween Train

post from Japan Probe on 25 October 2008 10:02:52 PM. © Japan Probe

By most accounts, last night’s Yamanote Halloween Train party had a dismal turnout. One reader who showed up for the party at the time reported on GaijinPot and this site wrote the following:I was there today and NOBODY came! Only 5 foreigners were there! Where were all of you tonight?!I was at platform number [...]

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Man uses electrodes to turn his face into a music
visualizer

post from Japan Probe on 25 October 2008 08:05:27 PM. © Japan Probe

Japanese artist/programmer/designer Daito Manabe attached some electrodes to his face and succeeded in making his facial muscles twitch along with a song:[via Makezine]

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Claude Tayag's Bale Dutung, Everybody's Cafe and
more from Pampanga

post from Ivan About Town on 25 October 2008 07:24:00 PM. © Ivan About Town

We had a really great Pampanga food tour today. Breakfast was at Everybody's Cafe where we were served a genuine Kapampangan breakfast composed of tsokolate batirul, pandesal, tamales from Cabalatian and rebuelto. Panghimagas included sweetened saba with ice, and plantanilla (sweet egg crepes with latik filling) from the kitchens of Imang Salud. The group laughed in amusement when we said that breakfast was light.We passed by the Bacolor and Betis[...]

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jhg

post from Ferroever on 25 October 2008 06:26:00 PM. © Ferroever

All day I have slept, woken up, slept, woken up. I have spent 23 hours in bed. 1 hour was spent divided into time spent in the bath and some time at the local shop.
Tomorrow I have the tea ceremony class and I really don't want to go. I hate having to leave the house for anything but work. I really hate it. I am only going because the ladies are so nice to me.
I cancelled the last class. I didn't write about it here but I did. I even cycled all the way to the house, stood at the doorstep, and cancelled it. I said I was sick. I was lying. The lady had made a lovely lunch too. She even offered me a bed to sleep off feeling sick and then we could eat lunch later. However, given that I teach at 4pm every Sunday, I don't really want to stay beyond the class. Quite frankly, I don't even want to do the class, but it was lovely of her to have made lunch. I feel like a bitch for lying, for leaving, for merely returning to my bed to sleep off yet another weekend, but what else can I do. I have a phobia of going out these days. It really is a phobia.
I really cannot socialise this year. Not one little bit. I hate socialising this year. Really hate it. I just want to sleep or work. So I am dreading having to go out and make small talk tomorrow. I don't want to. I'd rather stay in bed.

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$25 Broadway tickets and a $20 Off-Broadway offer

post from NewYorkology: A Free New York Travel Guide on 25 October 2008 05:31:28 PM. © NewYorkology: A Free New York Travel Guide

If you’re looking for cheap theater tickets, here are two quick hits: Broadway’s teen-themed “13: the Musical” has $25 tickets available at its 13fans website - through today only. Off-Broadway, for $20 you can see “The Awesome 80’s Prom” on...

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Gordon Fuller and Students

post from Go Nanaimo Blog on 25 October 2008 05:22:00 PM. © Go Nanaimo Blog

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Tutuila American Samoa Restaurants

post from South Pacific Travel Blog on 25 October 2008 04:58:00 PM. © South Pacific Travel Blog

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Ho Chi Minh City's War Remnants Museum

TOP THREE MOST VISITED PLACES IN SAIGON

Mention Saigon among other tourists and the War Remnants Museum will invariably come out as among the top 5 most visited destinations in this beguiling city. No, make it top 3 ? after the Reunification Palace and Ben Thanh Market! But my previous visits in Saigon have used the city as a ?gateway? to other destinations. And the War Remnants Museum was always at the bottom of my ?to-do? checklist. In fact, the last two instances I was there, I always ended ?trying? to catch the last few minutes of the museum for naught. On my 4th Saigon visit, the Museum became an obvious priority.

After depositing the Northface bags I bought from Saigon Square, I decided to take a xe om (motorbike taxi) to the War Remnants Museum for 15,000 dong ($0.90 or PhP44).

RELIVING THE BRUTALITY AGAIN

The War Remnants Museum (Vietnamese: B?o tàng ch?ng tích chi?n tranh) is a war museum at 28 Vo Van Tan, in District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). There was a considerable crowd at the façade. Tanks and helicopters as well as fighter planes were parked at the lawn. I paid for my 10,000 dong entrance fee and stepped at the spacious hall decked with panels, displaying photographs that documented the brutality that has befallen the Vietnamese under the American siege. Torture victims, deformed victims of Agent Orange ? the whole place was a somber reminder of the cruel uselessness of war. It was like reading those personal accounts at Cambodia?s Tuol Sleng once again.

WAR CRIMES
Wikipedia more appropriately describes the place: Operated by the Vietnamese government, the museum was opened in September 1975 as the "The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government [of South Vietnam]." Later it was known as the Museum of American War Crimes, then as the War Crimes Museum until as recently as 1993. Its current name follows liberalization in Vietnam and the normalization of relations with the United States, but the museum does not attempt to be politically balanced.
The museum comprises a series of eight themed rooms in several buildings, with period military equipment located within a walled yard. The military equipment include a UH-1 "Huey" helicopter, an F-5A fighter, a BLU-82 "Daisy Cutter" bomb, M48 Patton tank, and an A-1 attack bomber.

Saigon Square

Entrance to the War Remnants Museum

GRAPHIC
One building reproduces the so-called tiger cages in which the South Vietnamese government housed political prisoners. Other exhibits include graphic photographs, accompanied by short copy in English, Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese, covering the effects of Agent Orange and other chemical defoliant sprays, the use of napalm and phosphorus bombs, and atrocities such as the My Lai massacre. Curiosities include a guillotine used by the French and the South Vietnamese to execute prisoners, last in 1960, and three jars of preserved human fetuses deformed by exposure to dioxin.
ENOUGH!
Though I have had enough of these graphic documentations of war, it had nevertheless been a compelling visit that bolstered my belief that, as Boy George used to say, ?War is stupid.? It is unnerving that vestiges of these power plays are ever present in current world events. Boy George is right again - ?People are stupid". Will we never learn?

Ay! Ano yun?! Gagamba?
Pulitzer prize winning photo (first one above) of a naked child running away as the American troops begin their siege. Second one has a mother and her children desperately trying to cross the river to escape their attackers.

Victory?

The guillotine

The rotund in front of Ben Thanh Market

Festive hawker street beside Ben Thanh Market.

Organized chaos in the streets of Saigon (above and below).References: Wikipedia, Lonely Planet, War Remnants Museum For queries and a whisper: eyeintheblueskyblog@yahoo.com

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