Episode One and a half, Tiny singing Japanese people.
I find these
Japanese to be a strange people. Even now on TV they are
laughing at other people's pain in the guise of what appears to be a game show.
This
seems to be the same show that is on all day. It keeps going from clips of
people being
injured to shiny happy Japanese people laughing hysterically.
But this show seems to share
airtime with a similar show hosted by a man in drag.
In this show they embarrass
unsuspecting victims on the street and then laugh hysterically.
It also disturbs
me a little that everyone here seems to be able to sing. A roomful
of seemingly random individuals was able to give a perfect, in tune rendition
of
their national anthem, while America's national anthem gets butchered by people
who are paid
to sing. In America you would be lucky to find one person in twenty
who could sing
in tune or on key, much less twenty of those individuals who could
sing well
together. I say twenty because there are twenty kids at one of my schools
and yet they were lucky
enough to have all twenty fill out a complete and beautiful
sounding choir. I
personally find this odd. And maybe even a little Stepford-y.
12 of these
students managed to give a lovely rendition of "Country Roads",
despite my nearly uncontrollable urge to laugh at their choice of music.
(I
should say, I managed to sit through their lovely rendition of Country Roads,
despite my urge to
laugh.) Unfortunately, there was no one to share the joke with.
I don't know how
America became reduced to being represented by a John Denver
song, but it frightens me a little. I mean, why not a Michael
Jackson song, or the
Madonna version of American pie?
It all makes me
wish I had some McDonald's cheeseburgers with a super-size fry
and Dr. Pepper, with the Star Spangled Banner playing out of tune in the
background.