[M]anga, the Japanese world of fantasy cartoons and their gaming and toy offshoots, came to Paris at the weekend, with tens of thousands of youngsters queuing up—and dressing up—for this year’s Japan Expo.
...
Tess Collet, a 16-year-old from the Paris’ outskirts, wears one typical outfit: a Tartan skirt, ripped shirt, a plastic rat dangling from her neck and a syringe tucked into her belt. Oh ... and a mini gas-mask.
...
“Manga acts as a spearhead for Japanese pop culture,” explained event organiser Cyril Grillon. “Comics open up a window onto Japan’s language, its food, its fashion.”
...
“These French disguises are really excellent. They really look like characters from manga,” said Yusuke Yasuda, from the company Koikekazuogekigasonjuku, which manages private manga schools.

hi junko--please let me know if this adaptation “rings true” for you!  thanks --rodge

Pyua Toransu
Season Two, Episode Eighteen: “The Old Man and the Pee”
Showtime

EXT - SUBWAY. Two RATS, in some forgotten underground piece of urban infrastructure.  One rat chews an apple.  Another twitches his head, nervously. There is a rumbling.
CLOSEUP of a rat’s eyeball.  The rumbling increases. [already i am wondering:  why is at least one of these rats not being worn by a teenage girl?  -junko]
A giant loud BLUR.  The RATS are discombobulated.  The BLUR recedes suddenly.  We see it from behind, as it races precariously away: a subway train.
INT - TRAIN. KEIKO, a teenage girl, is almost alone inside the dingy train.  The lights flicker.  Keiko is wearing a blouse and a skirt. [at least one of these should be all ripped up.  the other must be argyle -junko]
An OLD MAN nearby makes a moaning noise.

        OLD MAN
    You must help me...
        [...because he has suffered a gas attack?  THERE MUST BE A GAS ATTACK OR IT IS NOT AUTHENTIC]
        [the old man must also be wearing a kilt and have bagpipes]

        KEIKO
    But I am not carrying any medical equipment...
        [it is clear you have never been to japan in your entire life.  for a schoolgirl not to be carrying at least a stethoscope is completely insane.  more likely, she has a syringe, and some gauze, and i think also many catheters.]

        OLD MAN
    Please… At least wear this plastic muskrat around your neck…
    It is the least you can do for a dying old man...
        [FINALLY some dialogue that makes sense.]

        KEIKO
    That is a weird thing to ask.
        [...]
        [i refuse to continue reading this mockery of my culture.]

Tags: entertainment, culture, japan, pure trance, plastic rat worn around the neck, manga

The Oreo has landed in Britain. And it is giving rise to a furious Battle of the Biscuits.
...
A new TV commercial shows a young boy teaching his scruffy dog how to eat an Oreo: “First you twist it. Then you lick it. Mmm. Then you dunk it,” he says, sploshing his Oreo into a glass of milk. This will be the first time that many Brits have seen a biscuit dipped in milk.
...
[Biscuit historian Stuart] Payne’s not convinced that Oreo can take on such a deep-rooted culture in which only the toughest, tea-complementing biscuits survive, in a society where offering someone a plate of Rich Tea, Custard Creams, or Jammie Dodgers is a way of expressing friendship, love, and concern.

The Biggins Estate, in an idyllic corner of Northamptonshire.

Young Cyril, scampering madly about: Mum!  Da!  Herbert’s returned!
Lady Biggins: I’ll be scuppered!!
Lord St. Cuppingham, Earl of Things: By Jove, you old gad-about...!!
Deaf Percy the Fish-Staver: Cripes?!?
Herbert: It’s true!  I’m back from America.  What an interesting place!
Lady Biggins: Do tell us of your adventures!, comprehensively without further delay, distraction, remittance &c.
Damon Alban: But first, as an expression of friendship, love, and concern, do permit us to offer you this plate of Rich Tea and Custard Creams.
Herbert: Well, er…
Deaf Percy the Fish-Staver: Yew blith’rin’ dolt, ‘e don’t want no Rich Tea nor no Custard Creams neither. Boy ‘Erbert’s only ivver supped upon Jammie Dodgers, ‘struth.
Clotilda Gurningwood: Plate o’ Jammie Dodgers, then, luv?
Herbert: That is to say…
Angus of-the-Vale: Marshy Wiggles?
Control: Dollopy Jamsmugglers?
Herbert: I’m terribly sorry, but I eat Oreos now.
The assembled group falls silent.
Herbert: And I—I habitually dip them in milk.  If you must know.
Young Cyril: But… But Herbert… I don’t understand.
Young Cyril runs crying to the ball-room.
Sir John Browdie: HOW IN THE BLAZES DO YOU GET A BISCUIT INSIDE A TIN OF MILK
Deaf Percy the Fish-Staver: I saw a bloke on the telly wot fed these O-re-os to a bleedin’ dog! ‘Struth, again.
Lady Biggins: I don’t quite know what to make of you, Herbert.
Herbert: Fetch the milk, Deaf Percy.  You all must try this strange and wonderful confection.
Oreos and milk are procured.  Hesitantly, the group munches away.
Sir John Browdie: I… I feel odd.
Lady Biggins: Yes, I also am experiencing the strangest sensation.
Angus of-the-Vale: SUDDENLY I FEEL COMPELLED TO PURCHASE A LORRY WOT IS MUCH LARGER THAN ACTUALLY FITS MY REQUIREMENTS AT THE MOMENT
Lord St. Cuppingham, Earl of Things: Yes, by Neptune!  Out-sized lorries for the lot of us!
Damon Alban: I find myself feeling great hostility toward Arab-speaking oil-producing nations.
Damon Alban: Great Scott!  I have also become slightly more overweight.
Lady Biggins: Darling, I don’t think I shall be attending tonight’s performance of Cymbeline after all—do you think Motley-on-the-Wold might perchance be hosting any events tonight in which lads in cars crash into each other inside a ring?  Preferably, some of the cars would spout fire.
Clotilda Gurningwood: Young Cyril, ducky, be a love and switch on all the lights in the house, and transfer the recyclables to the rubbish bin.
Sir John Browdie furtively begins pouring water into his pint of lager.
Deaf Percy the Fish-Staver: Gor!  I fink I’ll go visit me a denn-tist.

Tags: international relations, britain, culture, oreos, biscuits, deaf percy the fish-staver

The BBC is to launch a TV campaign promoting the new series of The Culture Show and its 101st episode, featuring personalities including Boris Johnson, Nigel Havers, Carl Barat and Adrian Chiles discussing cultural issues including EastEnders, sex, coffee, football and binge drinking.

BBC Radio 4’s Today presenter John Humphreys says: “[Culture] can be almost everything except politics and I’m a bit uneasy about contemporary art.”

Strong Takes has obtained the full transcript of the John Humphreys interview.

The Culture Show: Mr. Humphreys, we are here to get your opinion on what exactly is culture. Some have said –
John Humphreys: I’m going to cut you off right there. Everything but two things is culture: politics and contemporary art.
TCS: I see. What about sex?
JH: Yes. Sex is culture.
TCS: Coffee?
JH: Culture.  A bit jittery, which is to say, cultural.
TCS: Binge drinking?
JH: Obviously yes.
TCS: What about a law against binge drinking?
JH: That’s starting to sound an awful lot like politics. I’m going to say not culture.
TCS: What about a painting of some binge drinking?
JH: How old is the painting?
TCS: Pretty old.
JH: Yep, that’s culture.  That’s almost definitely culture.
TCS: Are you culture?
JH: Yes.
TCS: Am I?
JH: Yes, you – wait, do you vote?
TCS: Not really.
JH: Yeah, then you’re culture.
TCS: Culture?
JH: Culture.
TCS: What is the least cultural thing you can think of?
JH: An Andy Warhol impersonator running for a position on the local school board.
TCS: And the most cultural?
JH: A poop.

Tags: politics, britain, culture, john humphreys, contemporary art