Girl Friday

Go Sydney.

Coup Update

Luckily, tanks don’t have inflatable tyres.

The tanks still dotted around Bangkok after last week’s military putsch against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are proving a major attraction for Thais and foreign tourists who want their picture taken with the soldiers.

But the army appears determined that the carnival atmosphere following the country’s first coup in 15 years does not detract from the serious business of power. Yesterday, it banned go-go dancers from flaunting themselves near tanks and troops.

Thailand is a beautiful country with thousands of years of history, a unique culture, amazing food and wildlife, and some of the most stunning natural landscapes in the world. This message sponsored by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Ask And Ye Shall Receive

Gender equality could spell the end of female sports in Canada:

As two Winnipeg sisters find out Tuesday if they’ve made the boys’ hockey team at their high school, their recent human-rights victory has spurred boys to try out for girls’ sports teams.
[…]
“We have to see as a board what we want to do. Our big concern is how this whole thing could affect female participation in sport,” he said.

“If we get four guys or five guys going out for the [girls’] basketball team, there’s four or five females that won’t make the team — and I dare say a bunch of other ones aren’t going to compete — and we could end up with some female teams being made up of mostly men.

“We worked very, very hard to promote and build up female participation in sports,” Glimcher added.

“Everything that our organization has done … is based gender-equal. And if we all of a sudden get an influx of males participating, it could affect female participation and that would be a travesty.”

Yes, but the boys who might miss out on the hockey team in favour of girls can presumably go and get fucked? Where are all the people concerned about the boys who would obviously miss out on a spot in the boys gymnastics or diving teams?

Inshallah

Good Luck West Coast

A wellwishing message from your fellow sandgropers.

Update: Especially you.

Update: The empire strikes back

Miscegenation At The Movies

Foxtel is showing a repeat of Heaven’s Burning, a little known pre-Gladiator Russell Crowe film which has everything you could ever want in a film:

1. Russell Crowe being a bad motherfucker.
2. Stupid Cops.
3. Crazy Japanese motorbike killers.
4. Even crazier Muslim bank robbers.

And last but definitely not least, a healthy dose of miscegenation featuring Russell and Japanese Actress Youki Koduh.

In honour of this little-known Australian gem, here’s a short list of my favourite movies featuring white/asian couples:

Snow Falling On Cedars (Youki Kodoh again, this time with Ethan Hawke. She gets around, even by Japanese standards).

Kinamand – A divorced plumber deals with doldrums by making friends with the owner of the Chinese restaurant across the street. A proposition is made for the plumber to marry the Chinese guy’s little sister so she can get a Danish visa. Said sister turns out to be Vivian Wu. How lucky.

Stuck On You – Farrelly brothers comedy again takes the piss out of disabled people and manages to match Matt Damon up with a hot Chinese girl along the way.

Butterfly Man – required viewing for anyone thinking about visiting Thailand, even if it’s only so you realise there are better looking girls there than the ones you can find in Nana Plaza.

Bend It Like Beckham – A promising movie about a hot Sikh girl sadly spoiled by endless scenes featuring soccer. Oh well.

And a special honourable mention goes to The Sleeping Dictionary. Probably the sexiest of them all, but it doesn’t make the list mostly because Jessica Alba is not actually asian at all (she’s mexican), but I think we can all agree to forgive her. The movie gets an honourable mention because when you see her norks in the movie, she’s using a Japanese body double. And Lo and Behold, that scene is right here. Enjoy.

Girl Friday

Special “Healthy BMI” edition.

Soldier On

From Simon, the coup and subsequent martial law in Thailand haven’t had a huge effect:

The coup went largely unnoticed in Thailand’s popular tourist districts, where foreigners packed beer bars and cabarets oblivious to the activity about three kilometers away.

But word raced among street vendors hawking T-shirts, who packed up their carts and started heading home.

Morally Diminished is there, blogging the revolution.

Victorian Tourist Target Of Anti-Fuckwit Bigotry

Poor Wallsy. Why are people so unkind?

The locals view you with suspicion. When you walk the streets or boundary line in Brisbane or Sydney, the average football fan is friendly. In Adelaide, they like to banter and stir. It’s good fun. But in Perth, the dislike for Victorians is ingrained, so contemptuous, stares prevail.

People stare at you because you’re a fuckwit Walls.

Fat People Still Not Sexy

I’m sure this same thing happened last year:

AUSTRALIAN Idol judge Kyle Sandilands has been slammed by the Victorian Government after he said a 17-year-old contestant needed to lose a “jelly belly”.
[…]
Victoria’s Youth Affairs Minister Jacinta Allan said Mr Sandilands’ remark was humiliating and had the potential to do significant psychological damage to all the young people in the audience.

“Kyle sent a message to millions of young viewers dreaming of a career in the music industry – don’t bother if you’re not stick thin,” Ms Allan said.

Sounds like good advice to me. Apart from Pavarotti and Aretha Franklin, how many fatties have recording contracts?

Besides, aren’t we currently in a “war against obesity” or something in this country?

It’s one thing not to tease fat people. It’s another thing entirely to give them false hopes of being a music video superstar if they simply aren’t physically attractive enough. The name of the show is “Australian Idol“, not “Look, A Fat Chick With A Nice Voice!”.