http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMRvZTk7QYE

I love Wikipedia. I couldn’t think of this British anthem for awhile, but started reading about Britannia. It’s played quite a bit, especially in American media when showing off something British. You’ll probably recognize it if you fast forward to 3:45. Anyway, Britannia => Rule, Britannia => Youtube. Sweet.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/08/video-another-reason-to-watch-rallying-burcu-cetinkaya/

I like her voice (and the eyes, I’m a sucker for crescent-shaped eyes). Apparently she kinda shot herself in the foot by publicly dissing BoA a few years back though, BoA being a music superstar in Asia or something. Btw, what is it with Asian chicks and using the word “fag”? I’m tallying it in my head, and I don’t really see it used by females of other ethnicities very much. Yeah, yeah, I know, localized stereotype. I saw a girl call her younger sister a fag, once. The younger started crying. That was kind of eye-opening. “Huh, didn’t know you could use it on girls. I always thought it only worked on males.” Maybe the young whipper snappers have a different idea of “fag” from my old school, non-Johnny-Tremain one.

But yeah, Asian fans seem super cliquey, defending their idols like crazy, and didn’t take her disrespect too well. She’s definitely got talent, but she and Tiffany of SNSD seem to be setting a precedent of American arrogance when American-born Asians move over to the ancestral motherland to start a career. “I’M FROM AMERICA, BITCHES. I SPRACHEN ZE ENGLISH. BOW DOWN.” Their Confucianism imprint probably got lost being raised stateside.

Not that I think that kind of arrogance is limited to that subset of Americans. I used to think “American arrogance” was hype when I was younger, but I see it all the time these days. The way people perceive foreigners and their accents, the way people perceive foreign movies and cultures vs America’s, etc. I even see it among the so-called liberals who are supposed to be above that, though it tends to be more subtle with them. I imagine it’s the same kind of attitude every great empire/republic has had towards “lesser” states and their peoples. The Romans, the Chinese dynasties, etc.

A few years ago I met this guy who prided himself as being a movie buff. He hated Jet Li’s Hero, and was totally ragging on it. He liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon more. I liked both. When I watch a foreign movie, I try to see them from its cultural point of view. The former was more of a movie directed towards Asian tastes, while the later, more towards Western tastes. I told him that in Asia, box office performance was actually reversed, and that Hero did far better over there vs CTHD. He got this look on his face like, “CANNOT COMPUTE! HEAD ‘SPLODING.” He just kind of gave me a stunned, muted response. “Huh.” What can I say, generally speaking, Asians like order and unity and will simply admit it up front. Americans like their individuality, but it was built on lots of conquest. Throw in a “liberal guilt”-style smokescreen about how the cost was too great and shameful while simultaneously enjoying the fruits of said conquest nooo problem, and we have American reviewers finding the “message of Hero troubling.” So…when are the Washington Redskins playing next?

And just for the record, I totally thought the French stereotype of arrogance was hype, too, but when I went over, I definitely got a different vibe than I did from all the other countries I visited, to put it diplomatically. 違う感じ. Go figure.

“I have this magical thing called a home equity loan. I borrow all the money I want, and the house gets stuck with the bill!”

http://www.hulu.com/watch/61265/the-simpsons-foreclosure