Isn't this what twitter's for?

Thought of the day: In the past 24 hours, I have tripled my number of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches consumed since 2008.

And now, a video:

Homegrown

As the smallest capital city on Japan's forgotten island, Tokushima isn't know for much, but last week at Austin's South by Southwest Festival three Tokushima natives were making waves for their hometown. Joto High School's own Chatmonchy headlined the festival's Japan Nite on March 19, and while Japanese bands have had a notoriously tough time building a following stateside, the group was at least able to catch the attention of Spin Magazine, who included the girls in their "50 Must-Hear Bands at SXSW":

CHATMONCHY

HOMETOWN: Tokushima, Japan
WHY THEY MATTER: With catchy, raw, emotional rock anthems, this all-girl power trio is like the 21st-century Japanese version of the Runaways. Their sound has already swept their native land, and the band -- making their U.S. debut at SXSW -- is looking to repeat the success stateside.
YOU SHOULD KNOW: Almost all of Chatmonchy's lyrics are sung in Japanese. "We want to challenge ourselves in other countries and see if we can convey our music with just the groove, without the lyrics," drummer Takahashi told The Japan Times.

Read more from Spin here, or click here to check out the full interview from the Japan Times.

The marathon weekend

A conference in Yokohama, coupled with the Tokyo Marathon, gave me a five day weekend this past week and a chance to stretch my legs a little bit before school graduations and musical performances. They're not very exciting, but here are some digital-dry photos of the weekend's damp festivities.


picking up free goods at the marathon expo


cold and wet for the start


happy to be calling it a day after 10k


Yokohama by day


view from the bar in the Landmark Tower

Round 1

Musical starts tomorrow, which means three straight weekends of performances and six more nights of convenience store dinners. Not that I'm complaining...

Photos from the marathon still to come, but in the meantime here's some more press shots from The Lion King courtesy of fellow ALT Eric Williams. Keep your noses clean this weekend.


classic Disney character, Rufus T. Elephant


monkey pilgrim Mari


dancers


young Simba


Sarafina


Hyena Ed


Scar