They ain't ready
Wonderful Things
Snoop Dogg x Darth Vader
Aug 3rd
An Adidas collaboration earlier this year brought together Snoop Dogg, of Doggystyle/Capitol Records and Darth Vader, of The Sith/Galactic Empire.
Both legends in their respective galaxies, the two met to discuss being tall, black, and using respirators.
Suited & Booted
Larry King x Ed Hardy
Feb 8th
Larry King and family hit the orange carpet at a Nickelodeon event last year dressed head to toe in Ed Hardy. When asked who he was wearing, King gave a hat-tip to Christian Audigier. He was then slimed.
“Old enough to know better, old enough to not care”
Japan x Pixies
Jan 26th
In 2000, Invisible Records Japan released a “Tribute to the PIXIES”, a compilation of Japanese rock bands covering tunes by The Pixies. Japanese record labels are well known for showing their appreciation for western artists with beautiful tribute albums (a topic I plan on addressing in more detail later), and “PIXIES” is a perfect example. The only non-Japanese band on the album is Seafood (from the UK), who do a faithful-but-plain rendition of “Levitate Me”. The rest of the artists offer amazing and unique treatments of classic Pixies songs, from punk rock renditions to noise/experimental interpretations.
Highlights include Japanese indie band Feed’s surreal cover of “Debaser”, which includes the sound of dogs barking underneath the chorus, and Cowpers singing “Bone Machine” with Japanese lyrics.
The album closes with a band called Wakusei covering “Gigantic”, pronouncing it with a hard ‘g’ sound. The BEAT CRUSADERS also appear on this album, covering “Debaser”. BEAT CRUSADERS is a popular Japanese pop-punk band that appears on a ton of tribute albums.
Stephen Harper x Kitties!!!
Jan 17th
In the wake of his decision to suspend parliament through the Olympics, Stephen Harper’s popularity among Canadians is crumbling. The PM’s buddy Tom Flanagan (who formerly served as Harper’s campaign manager and chief of staff) said “Everybody knows that Parliament was prorogued in order to shut down the Afghan inquiry”.
At least Stephen Harper still has one friend who hasn’t lost faith in him.
“You and me against the world”
Kim Jong Il x Bill Clinton
Jan 11th
Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s reclusive Supreme Leader met with Bill Clinton last summer to discuss the imprisonment of two American journalists. This was the first time these two remarkable people had met face to face, despite fostering a ton of tension over the DPRK’s desire to build nuclear missiles in the mid 90′s. Now that it’s the 21st century, and they actually HAVE built nuclear missiles, things keep getting weirder and weirder in North Korea.
There was some speculation that the man who met with Clinton in August 2009 wasn’t Kim Jong Il, but a stand-in lookalike. Kim Jong Il apparently has several lookalikes that he used to use to thwart assassination attempts, Saddam Hussein-style. There have been rumours for years that Kim Jong Il’s health is failing, or that he has actually already died. Nobody on either side of the North Korean border has been able to prove anything about the current state of their leader, and this fascinates me. I think it’s so awesome that nobody knows whether a world leader is alive or dead. Since having a serious stroke in 2008, Kim Jong Il has made hundreds of public “appearances” all over the DPRK; I think he will be a popular theme at Cross Country Singalong because everything about him is amazing.
This photograph sums up exactly what this site is about. North Korea, fascinating people, hilarious juxtapositions, disparate heights, awkward press photos… These are all wonderful things.










