Failblog is sooo much better than Engrish.com

Once again Freddy finds himself in a position where he needs to apologize for a long absence. Freddy is just trying to wear too many hats right now. One hat he is wearing is that of a squidoo lensmaker. Freddy just published his second squidoo lens, this time on flying on Japanese airlines. That brings Freddy's Squidoo lens total to two:

Everything you never wanted to know about Sumo Wrestling
and
Why you should pay more to fly on a Japanese airline

Freddy would just be ecstatic if you would stop by his lenses, give them a rating, participate in the surveys and leave him a comment. Please have a look.

In any case, he's back today with a new blog entry to help you pass a little time and put a smile on your face (especially if you're the type that enjoys Schadenfreude). Freddy also sometimes is looking for ways to "pass" the time at work and one of his favorite reading sites is slate.com. Yesterday, Freddy read this article from slate on FAIL.

Freddy was most recently exposed to the "FAIL" phenomenon when he came across this excellent Halloween costume:But it was only through the slate article that Freddy learned of the existence of failblog.org. Failblog is a blog filled with pictures and videos of people failing. Failing in sports, fashion, academics ... life in general. So, as Freddy said earlier, if you enjoy Schadenfreude, this is definitely a site for you. In many ways, failblog reminds Freddy of engrish.com, in that it is making fun of the inability of others (hence the Schadenfreude). After reading the Slate article, Freddy learned that the term/phrase "FAIL" actually has it's roots in engrish. So far, Freddy is much more impressed with failblog than Engrish.com. What's more, Failblog seems to have it's own Engrish branch engrishfunny.com Why is this better than engrish.com (the original Engrish site?) Mainly because of the comments. Of course, this is Freddy's personal preference. Whoever is running the Engrish.com site feels a need to post his own (mostly unfunny) commentary to all the pictures submitted. He claims that his visitors prefer that his comments stay, yet Freddy thinks he is living in his own little dream world. If you write to him suggesting that he post pictures without the comments (most of the pictures are more than funny on their own), he responds by pointing you to one of his FAQ addressing this issue. If so many people are suggesting that you remove your comments that you need to post a FAQ about it, maybe there aren't so many people who enjoy them as you think. (Mr. Engrish.com - Objectivity FAIL) Freddy is pleased that the Failblog engrish site is satisfied to post the pictures without their own comments. Of course, they allow users to post comments, but that is not the same as posting your own comments.

Enough ranting by Freddy. Here are some failblog posts Freddy has enjoyed in the last 24 hours:

Mens Accessories FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Archie FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Three-handed FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

Packaging FAIL:

see more Funny and Weird T-shirts

and there are many more.

There are thousands of pictures and videos posted on failblog. Freddy, of course, has some of his own favorites. He wonders if they have been submitted or not. Maybe he will get around to submitting them someday, but for now, instead of making you search around for them, Freddy will post his own favorite FAIL vids right here.

Freddy thought he posted this clip in an earlier post, but he can't find it, so here it is.

Aerobics class FAIL:


Kelsey Grammar FAIL:


Modeling FAIL: (talk about Schadenfreude, these newscaster have it down)


Foreign Policy FAIL:


Foreign Policy FAIL (2):


There are just too many Sarah Palin FAILs to post here. Freddy doesn't have time.

And now it's time for Freddy to go. Don't forget to come back to check for more fun updates from Freddy. And don't forget to visit Freddy's T-shirt shop for lots of humorous, funny, weird, strange and cool t-shirts. Entropic Tees

Breasts, Butts and Controversy

Freddy enjoys watching Sumo Wrestling (hence the "breasts" and "butts" in the title. Not what you were expecting?) and has spent some time over the past year or so enjoying the tournaments and writing articles about the various controversies that have popped up this year. Not to break tradition, the the sumo world came up with a fresh controversy for the fall tournament when three Russian sumo wrestlers were banned (that means fired) from sumo wrestling for life. That is something that has never happened before in the history of sumo wrestling. Why, you ask? They were either in possession of, or tested positive for marijuana use. Not only did this result in the banning of these three wrestlers, but also the demotion of their stable master, and the resignation of the Sumo Association Chairman, Kitanoumi.

If you are wondering what a "stable master" is, then you should check out the project Freddy worked on this summer. Being a growing sumo fan, Freddy has been trying to learn more about the sport. In fact, he has written several articles on the Sumo world in the last year or so

The Sumo Problem and Japanese Sportsmanship
Kotoshu - Sumo's first European Champion
Asashoryu and Hakuho Vent Their Frustrations on One Another

In the process of attempting to learn about sumo and writing these articles, he found that there is very little good info on the sport written in English, so he decided to write up his own Sumo primer and put it up at a site called Squidoo. Freddy is just starting to learn about Squidoo and it's kind of interesting.

Whether you're interested in sumo or not, Freddy invites you to stop by his Sumo Wrestling page at Squidoo and give it a rating, leave a comment, broaden your horizons, etc.

Freddy's Sumo Wrestling Primer

Don't forget to check back in a week or so for another update and visit Freddy's store
Entropic Tees - The Internet's most puzzling t-shirt designs

What If Napoleon Dynamite Sketched Pictures of John McCain and Sarah Palin?

Freddy is not usually very political, but like the rest of the country, he is fairly intrigued by Republican, John McCain's VP pick, Sarah Palin. Intrigued and confused. Personally, Freddy thinks that McCain is taking a big gamble with Sarah Palin, but so far the gamble has worked pretty well. Freddy wonders how long it will last. At any rate, not only is Sarah Palin the first female on a Republican presidential ticket, but she is probably also the most attractive VP nominee ever. And the fact that she seems to be slightly "bitchy" just makes her even more so, for some reason. For the record, Freddy was not at all impressed how she ruthlessly acted Obama after he showed restraint and respect by not commenting on her knocked up daughter. Granted, opposing political parties are going to attack each other, but Ms. Palin did so without any acknowledgement whatsoever of Obama's respect for her family's privacy.
Anyhow, as Freddy mentioned, he is not very political and doesn't want to make this a political blog. Still, Freddy could not resist taking up pencil and paper and drawing pictures of John McCain and Sarah Palin. And then proceed to place them on T-shirts. Be warned that Freddy is not much of an artist, so he new his drawing would be of a low quality when he set out to make them. His drawing of Sarah Palin reminded him of the drawing Napoleon Dynamite makes for his crush. Don't you remember? "I spent like 45 minutes on the shading on your upper lip." Or something like that. Anyway, Freddy humbly offers you his 2008 McCain - Palin presidential campaign series t-shirt designs. Are these pro-Republican, pro-McCain, pro-Palin t-shirts? Or are they anti-Republican, anti-McCain, anti-Palin t-shirts? Freddy thinks it's up to you to decide.

Please feel free to visit Freddy's store for many more t-shirts (mostly non-political, but certainly entertaining). Visit the Entropictees Website, or Freddy's online t-shirt store for a lot more fun!
And don't forget to visit again soon to get more EntropicTees updates. And oh yes, please stop by t-shirt countdown to vote for EntropicTees, "Deers is Mammals" t-shirt design!

This is Just So Weird! (2 things)

Freddy's good friend, HallaMeat used to have a blog called "the Magistrate" where on occasion he would post interesting dreams he had. He called it "The M's Dream TV". Freddy was even able to contribute one time with one of his own strange dreams. Since Freddy's dreams were a bit strange last night, he would like to continue in the magistrate's tradition and post his own "Dream TV".

Why was Arnold Schwarzenegger in Japan? Freddy has no idea, but in his dream, he was. (perhaps he was working on more commercials) Anyhow, for some reason, Freddy and Arnold were also friends, so Arnold invited Freddy to fly back to his house in CA on his private jet. Freddy was glad to get away for a weekend, and he also thought he would have a chance to practice some German with Arnold. Although Freddy's family was not on Arnold's jet with him, when they arrived (and pulled into the driveway, in a private jet) suddenly, Freddy's wife and children were by his side. Upon getting out of the "plane", Freddy noticed that it was nothing more than a Jeep Wrangler with turbine engines attached to the sides and a wing fastened to the roof. (It was literally a Jeep Wrangler, a red one) Weird. It seemed bigger inside. Anyhow, Arnold showed Freddy and his family inside and introduced his wife, Maria and his two children (does he have children?) who turned out to be around the same ages as Freddy's own. The house was nice, but fairly messy and the back yard was actually a horse pasture. The Schwarzeneggers had about 20 horses, it looked like. The whole time Freddy wanted to ask questions about politics, (especially their opinion on Sarah Palin) but thought it was unwise. After all, we'd only just met. So instead of asking about politics, Freddy started talking to Arnold about world economics, in German. He asked Arnold if he realized that Austria (Arnold is from Austria) had the 4th largest economy in the world, after the US, Japan and Germany. Arnold said, "really?" and that was the end of that conversation. A phone rings, Maria answers it, sudden scene change. Now everyone is on a couch and for some reason, Freddy's parents have joined in out of the blue. Freddy only recalls two things from this scene: First, someone was saying, "You should never discuss politics, religion or sex when you're with friends." Secondly, Arnold was talking to his children in Japanese! Where did he learn that? and why is he talking to his children in Japanese? Finally, fast-foward 10 years or so. For some reason the part of Freddy is now being played by Tom Arnold. Freddy's and Arnold's (Schwarzenegger) families have become good friends over the years and visit each other every so often. But Freddy has a slight competitive tendency and feels a need to prove something to Arnold. So on this occasion, Freddy has brought along a small, remote control platform, about two feet by one foot, which rests on wheels. It is meant for carrying luggage, but is rather unstable. Freddy is using the remote to guide it up the walk to the front door, carrying more luggage than it probably should and several bags tumble onto the sidewalk in the process. Still, Freddy (which is now being played by Tom Arnold, don't forget) is hoping to impress the Schwarzeneggers.

And that is as much as Freddy remembers at this point.

The other weird thing that Freddy experienced yesterday might as well have been a dream. It all started with the YouTube video "Charlie Bit My Finger". Actually, that's where it ended. Freddy hadn't seen the original before. He admits, it's pretty cute. Anyway, Freddy found this video first, where a couple of strange TV show hosts interview the family of the "Charlie Bit My Finger" video fame. Here it is:

Now tell Freddy that this isn't extremely weird. What is going on here? Honestly, it is like a screen test out of a Christopher Guest movie or something. Don't you think so? Self absorbed hosts, disinterested guests, awkward moments. What do you do when one of the hosts starts biting the other host's finger? Just sit there and smile perhaps?

There you go. Freddy hopes you have enjoyed a dose of strangeness for the day. If you haven't gotten quite enough, Freddy invites you to stop by his Cafepress store, Entropic Tees, where you can peruse through numerous styles of apparel with Japanese, German, random, weird and even Christopher Guest inspired designs. And don't forget to come back to check for updates soon. (Freddy will soon be doing his best to trash an online company for deceitful business practices. Don't miss it, it should be fun)

Love Freddy.

Is Crispin Glover Brilliant? or Just Plain Crazy?

Freddy recently finished up using "Back to the Future" to teach English to one of his high school classes. Crispin Glover, as the nerdy dad, George McFly, is always one of the favorite characters of the students. (As well as one of Freddy's all time favorites) When Freddy was in high school, he used to imitate Crispin Glover's attempt to ask out Lorraine Baines at the soda stand: "Yes, I'm George, George McFly, and I'm your density!... err uh, I mean destiny." This is one of Hollywood's all time greatest pick up lines.

Although Freddy was always a big fan of Crispin Glover, it wasn't until college that he discovered Glover's wide range of artistic endeavors. Soon after meeting his college roommate, Freddy was introduced to Crispin Glover's music album, "The Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution. The Solution = Let it Be." Freddy was immediately enthralled with tracks like "The New Clean Song", Crispin Glover's interpretation of "These Boots are Made For Walkin'", "Clowny Clown Clown" (of which Freddy once did an interpretive
reading and dance backed up by an impromptu band) and of course, "Auto Manipulator". In fact, the Auto Manipulator song even inspired of Freddy's Auto Manipulator T-shirt design, which Crispin Glover has seen himself, and autographed. If you're not familiar with the album or the music, please enjoy this video of Glover's "Clowny Clown Clown" available on YouTube:


Freddy hadn't watched this video in quite some time and was just noticing that "Mr. Farr" actually appears to be Glover's character from one of his own films, "Rubin and Ed". Unfortunately Freddy has never had the opportunity to see this film, other than some of the clips that are available on YouTube. Here is Freddy's favorite YouTube clip from Glover's "Rubin and Ed"...



Perhaps one of Crispin Glover's most well-known appearances (aside from Back to the Future) is his 1987 appearance on Letterman, which is also all over YouTube. There are a lot of rumors out there that Glover did the appearance while he was on an acid trip. Based on his behavior, it would be easy to believe. Freddy"s personal opinion is that he was in the character of Rubin Farr (From his movie, "Rubin and Ed") Once you watch the clip, you'll also notice that the Rubin Farr character also appears in the Clownly Clown Clown video. In my opinion, Glover appeared "in character" for the interview. I do not believe he was on LSD. Crispin Glover's 1987 Letterman appearance:



About three years later, Crispin Glover appeared on Letterman again, this time as himself. He attempts to explain what happened back in '87, but the story takes too long and Letterman cuts him off before he can finish. From what Freddy can guess, it seems that Glover was trying to say that it was not actually him that appeared on the show back in 1987. He says that he was tired from doing several appearances in a row, and asked an acquaintance, who looked very much like him, Rubin Farr, to do the interview in his place. (Freddy apologizes for the low quality of the clip, it is the only one he could find of this interview)



Crispin Glover, himself, will not confirm or deny any rumors about his 1987 appearance on Letterman. He says he prefers to just let the incidents have a life of their own and let people think what they want.




Mr. Glover elaborates more on why he likes to let his work stand on its own, and why he sometimes likes to make people feel a bit awkward and uncomfortable (David Letterman?) in this interview with Tom Green:

Freddy is not surprised that Crispin Glover and Werner Herzog get along well. Freddy is also a Herzog fan, and even evaluated three of Herzog's films in a research paper for graduate school in Germany. Freddy would categorize both Werner Herzog and Crispin Glover in that weird genius category. Some other time, Freddy will probably write up a blog entry about Herzog as well.

Anyhow, one reason Freddy is a fan of Crispin Glover relates to what he talks about in one of the interviews. Glover mentions how he sort of enjoys the audience reactions to some of his quirky antics. (Freddy wonders if Borat is a Glover fan...) You see, in case you didn't know, Freddy designs weird t-shirts (mostly weird, at least). Freddy also enjoys watching the reactions from people on the street, who "don't get" the t-shirts. But that is an article for another day. Freddy doesn't want to get off topic. This is supposed to be about Crispin Glover. Well, the post has gotten too long anyhow, so perhaps he should close it up.

For those of you who are perhaps only familiar with Crispin Glover as George McFly from "Back to the Future", or as just some weirdo, Freddy hopes that he has been able to open your eyes to a different, more thought-provoking, intellectual side of his acting. There are all kinds of clips on YouTube with Crispin, from one of his very early roles on Happy days, to some weird Latina girl interviewing him. Freddy doesn't have time to post them all here, but if you want to know more about Crispin, please look for him on YouTube and visit his own website, perhaps he is coming to your town for a presentation of his slide show and film.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. If you enjoyed the post, perhaps you would like to visit my store:
Entropic Tees
If you like the t-shirts, don't forget to vote for the Deers is Mammals Tee at T-shirt countdown.
Vote for Deers is Mammals

And of course, don't forget to visit again...

If You Like Bluegrass Music..

... then you may be interested to keep reading. Well, it's nothing big, but Freddy was taken down memory lane a few days ago by some old, bluegrass-lovin' college buddies. For about two years when Freddy was in college, his Saturday nights were always reserved for the Old Man Roscoe Jamboree. Freddy and his friends would get together and play hot, passionate bluegrass for 2 hours or more, till the neighbors complained. It was a group of friends, ranging from as few as 4 or 5, sometimes up to 20 or more, who would crowd into Freddy's little college apartment, bringing guitars, banjos, violins, stand-up basses, flutes, percussion, anything you could play music on. Those who didn't have an instrument brought their voices. Old Man Roscoe was our founder, who only a few privileged members had actually met. Those who had met Roscoe were sometimes lucky enough to have convinced Roscoe to teach them a song. Some of the favorites were: "Where do Babies Come From? (I don't know, I don't know)", "Skinny Dippin'", and "'59 Chevy". Some of Freddy's favorite old standbys were "Drill ye Tarriers, Drill", "Rocky Top", "Old Joe Clark" and many more. Those were good times.

Most of the members of Roscoe have spread out across the Midwest, but occasionally several will find themselves in close proximity and happen to have their instruments with them. When that happens, it is likely that there will be an Old Man Roscoe Revial meetin'. About a year ago, Freddy had the chance to have one at his house. It was good times. Just a few days ago (well, it was June, actually) it seems that there was a jamboree in Chicago with a few of the old members. They were nice enough to put it up on YouTube, so Freddy's gonna share it with you!


Purely through coincidence, shortly after watching this video, Freddy saw a "crazy Japanese T-shirt" as he was walking down the street in Japan. (Freddy likes crazy Japanese stuff) Anyhow, the T-shirt Freddy saw had a guitar and banjo on the front, with the text, "Let's Go Crazy" over the top of the image. Well, since Freddy like it so much, he made his own design.


This is Freddy's own Bluegrass T-shirt design. If you like it, please consider purchasing one. Or perhaps you don't like it, but you know someone who might? Freddy would be very grateful if you passed it on to them. You may see the full range of products with this design at the following link:

Let's Go Crazy - Bluegrass T-shirt

And now Freddy just spilled coffee all over his desk (#$%*!) and no, that is not a euphemism! So He must go and clean it up. Great way to start the day!

You Could Never Show This on American TV!

Freddy read a week or so ago that Japanese game shows were starting to make their way into the US TV market. Freddy wonders if they will be showing original Japanese game shows, or trying to make their own shows to be like Japanese game shows. If it is the latter, Freddy thinks they will never get close to producing the same ...er... quality of game shows. Besides, some of them would never make it past the censors. They are just to crude or violent, or both. Freddy will share a crude and violent game show with you, but first let him tell you about a fun and creative one.

Freddy doesn't have time to watch TV as much as he used to, but when he last lived in Japan, about ten years ago, he still remembers some of his favorite game shows. One was more of a reality TV show. (The Japanese were doing "reality TV" long before Americans ever heard the term). Anyway, it was quite entertaining. Two non-Japanese were shown a 5000 yen note. On the back of the note is a famous view of Mt. Fuji. There is a certain spot where this picture was taken and many tourists will stop there to take pictures. The two contestants were told that they had to find their way to this spot and the first one there was the winner. I believe they started off somewhere in Osaka/Kobe. Of course, neither spoke Japanese and they didn't even give them a 5000 yen note to help them out. They had to get there completely on their own. Freddy remembers one of them made it to Kyoto, and was just wandering around Kyoto station asking in a loud voice, "Does anyone speak English?" "Does anyone have a 5000 yen bill?" It was an entertaining program and eventually, they both made it to the goal.

Sometimes, though, Japanese TV producers just go for the lowest common denominator (which is usually sex, violence, or ... well, poop and farts) In this case, they went for the farts. Now, those who know Freddy will know that Freddy loves a well-timed fart, and the more embarrassing, the better it is. Like in this YouTube Clip, for example (it disappeared for awhile, but Freddy is glad to see that it is back)

Ha ha ha, that never gets old.

Anyhow, the Japanese game show was again a traveling show. Two contestants (this time, Japanese) were given a goal to reach. They were given no money, so unless they could get some, they had to walk there (not impossible, but would have taken more than a day to walk all the way.) They were actually given a way to earn money, though. Every time one of them farted, they would get 50 yen or something like that. Freddy thinks it actually depended on the volume and the length of the fart. So if they farted enough, they could earn enough for the bus fare for part of the way, or to buy a drink or snacks or something like that. So the whole show was following these two fellows on their journey and watching them as they rejoiced every time one of them tooted his trouser trumpet.

Well, the traveling trouser trumpet show is a bit crude, but Freddy thinks it still might make it onto the US networks. But this final game show likely goes a bit too far (and this is not the worst, by the way.) Freddy found this by mistake a year or so ago while searching for clips of a different game show. The contestants here are given a tongue twister, and a time limit. If they fail to say the tongue twister without any mistakes, or they go over the time limit, they are ... physically harmed. (The ladies will likely enjoy this more than the men)


Funny Japanese Tshirts