The 2005 movie Memoirs of a Geisha, and the recent rise of the "cyber-geisha", are behind a renewed interest in pursuing a career as the traditional dancer and entertainer, among young Japanese women Experts believe the recent surge in teenage girls hoping to enter the "floating world" of tea ceremonies, performing arts, and yes, flirtatious exchanges with inebriated clients, is evidence of renewed respect among the Japanese ... Read full entry

Not sure how I missed this, but Tasmanian web designer Jason Carter has, sometime recently, relaunched conduit to all things cool, TheNews. I've also secretly subscribed to the view that Australia is the world's largest island for many years (largest island sounds way cooler than smallest continent), a point-of-view TheNews also seems to support. TheNews.com.au is a daily update on ideas, products and emerging trends in the intersection of art, ... Read full entry

The Defining Culture of the Naughties? Many years from now when you look back on the twenty-hundreds (the 2000s, "the naughties") what will strike you as the period's decisive, or defining element, culturally? Simon Wilison postulated that the "naughties" were defined by Internet culture, and while the idea was attractive, it didn’t hold up to scrutiny. After all, their isn't really a single Internet culture, but multifarious ones. And then Simon ... Read full entry

Uh oh. This could reinflame the old Sydney/Melbourne rivilary. As if it's ever been... un-inflamed This morning's paper, the, haha, Sydney Morning Herald, features an article rejecting a "call" for more Melbourne style "hole in the wall" bars in Sydney... According to John Thorpe, the NSW president of the Australian Hotels Association: Melbourne - a land of skivvy-wearing, chardonnay-drinking book readers - is fundamentally different from Sydney in its ... Read full entry