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Madonna’s Girl Gone Wild recycles decades of her oeuvre

March 21, 2012fetishChange, decades, gays, Girl Gone Wild, grow, image, learn, loyalty, Madonna, Moe, never, oeuvre, old, singtokyo moe Leave a comment

Oh, Madonna never grows old, learns to sing, or changes her image. At least she maintains her loyalty to the gays!

Rentokil provides violent imagery while urinating

September 14, 2011Public space, Uncannyautomatic, brand, Calmic Rentokil Initial, feeling, flush, flusher, image, kite, misplaced, Public, toilet, urinate, wind, wordtokyo moe Leave a comment

I have been urinating in public restrooms in Tokyo for several years, when I just noticed the brand of the automatic flusher, Calmic Rentokil Initial. Three collections of letters that add up to one misplaced word, and several conflicting feelings. Should I feel calm? Should I be killing? Or is renting best? The kite fluttering in the wind adds more incongruity to this strange brand image. This company seems to provide the flushing for most Tokyo public toilets.

Google image results tell more than you need to know

June 13, 2011fetish, men, Public spaceAnthony Weiner, flag, Google, image, louche, Moe, rehab, result, rich, search, set, story, therapy, Twitter, understandable, visualtokyo moe Leave a comment

It’s remarkable how a Google image search for “anthony weiner twitter” produces such a rich set of visuals that tells more than enough: vanity, tears, arrogance, underpants, wife, user-generated content, hairless muscular chest, high school photo, the american flag. Of course he’s now finally heading for therapy and its inevitable political outcome, rehab. Godspeed, Mr Weiner, and thank you and Google for making our world more louche and understandable.

Another marital view

April 30, 2011fetish, Public space, Uncannyanother, dog, hotel, image, love, marital, Moe, owl, rest, royal, Shibuya, short, term, weddingtokyo moe One comment

After the excitement of yesterday’s Royal Wedding– the dress, ahhhh!!– nothing is more appropriate than this lovely vacancy sign at a love hotel in Shibuya. Is the marital dog image the right one for lovers looking for “short term rests”? The random owls are a nice touch, plus the intriguing “in/full” that seems to stand in for vacancy/no vacancy.

Please name this celebrity!

April 29, 2010fetish, JR & Tokyo Metro, male fashion, men, Public spaceactor, ad, attention, beauty, hair, image, Kamenashi Kazuya, KAT-TUN, lurid, model, Moe, Panasonic, Shibuya 109, skin, watertokyo moe View all 27 comments

Ok, fan girls. Please help me out. Who is this barely legal looking actor/model/singer who’s hawking Panasonic’s technology wonder of a wet-and-dry electric razor? I figure one of my readers will surely know.

I love how lurid the campaign is: the image is saturated with water drops, his hair damp and immaculate, his skin eerily unmarked by age or imperfection. But mostly I love how he welcomes our attention. Perhaps he needs it ^^

ps: There’s also a video version of this ad in the Tokyo Metro. I hope no one gets so distracted they fall into the tracks. . .

RIP, Farrah Fawcett

June 26, 2009male fashion, Public space1970s, bathing suit, Farrah Fawcett, husband, image, mane, men's hair, one piece, pillow, RIP, smiletokyo moe View all 5 comments

One of the 1970s’ brightest lights is no longer with us. This image on a small throw pillow is one of the clearest memories I have of my adolescent bedroom. The husband had the same image on a poster on his wall in Tokyo. The globe was momentarily united by this one piece bathing suit, the amazing mane which still seems to inspire Japanese men’s hair, and that blinding smile. Her death is another reminder of the importance of the HPV vaccine.