Facebook has just “recommended” something that it thinks I’ll like:

“Tomorrow is coming”. Its the ” soon-to-be-released 80s story of a banker by day, male dancer by night who finds his first love”.

The website Facebook suggests I click on to promote the book makes heavy use of saxophone music and features quotes like “You will cry, laugh and grow angry” from the author of “Secrets of a Marine Porn Star”, and “This memoir helped me to understand myself as a person better” from the dude off “The Amazing Race”.

Facebook hates me.

ROBYN GRACE
The Age, November 23, 2009 – 2:10PM
A man has been taken to hospital with deep cuts to his abdomen and face after being attacked by a kangaroo north of Melbourne.

The kangaroo had been holding the man’s dog down in a dam at Arthurs Creek when it lashed out.

Advanced life support paramedics were called to the property at 9.35am.

‘The 49-year-old dived into the dam and managed to free his dog but he was injured in the process,” paramedic Michael Vosbergen said.

“He suffered a deep cut across his abdomen, a deep cut across his face and eye and a number of scratches to his chest, face and arms.”

The man was given pain relief before being taken to the Austin Hospital in a stable condition.

Global media titans don’t exactly come with inbuilt street cred, so I didn’t think CNN’s new “Asian lifestyle” portal CNNgo would really be my idea of a good time. But having logged on, I’ve been won over. It is surprisingly hip. The site is designed to provide an entertaining rundown on the trends and vagaries of modern Asian life, through six key cities – Bangkok, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Shanghai. And I think it pretty much succeeds.

My first look through yielded a wealth of fascinating info;
an amazing Korean tatoo artist, a run-down of Tokyo “8-bit” bars (where patrons play vintage computer games while they drink, the invention (or not?) of the new Japanese verb “obamu” (“to proceed with cautious optimism like Obama”) and the Bangkok debut of “Foursquare” (apparently poised to supercede Twitter at the new year’s next big internet sensation). Plus this cute Thai condom ad:

ONE Condom in Thailand

And there are knowledgeable-sounding restaurant, shopping and nightlife reviews and a fresh, attractive look.

I’m liking it

Where the Wild Things Are – Official Trailer

The “wild Things” movie is just about to be released here, although (I just discovered) it was actually filmed here! Yes, Australia is the Land of the Wild Things!

Spike Jonze was apparently in Melbourne for 6 months filming at nearby forests and beaches. I wonder what he thought of the country? The only thing I can find online is an odd comment he made about there being “blood on the streets of Melbourne”, as if it were some Wild West town…

Saturday was the Johnson Street Fiesta, Melbourne’s annual Hispanic community street party. I had been warned by a Latin-lovin’ friend that the event was disappointing and I should go with lowered expectations; and I can kind of see what she meant. I didn’t exactly feel like I’d stepped into Havana.

But taking it for what it was – a medium-sized community event on a Melbourne street – I enjoyed it. It was interesting to be in a Melbourne where suddenly Spanish was the main foreign language (I wonder what area of the city these Latin American and Spanish people live in?)

The event was centred heavily around food – roasted beef on skewers, paella, churros, chicken hearts, arepitas … I hung around for a bit with my friends Eric and Linda, there were upscale local residents walking their dogs through the thick crowds, smoke and beer, plenty of Asian and black as well as Latin faces, and some cheesy touches like sombreros and feathered samba girls. At one end of the street was a stage with salsa lessons and reggaeton, although by late afternoon a torrential rain had started and people were fleeing from the scene, except for a few impressive die-hard dancing in the rain.

Here is the Venezuelan breakfast, with which I had started the day; black beans, scrambled eggs with onion and tomato, cheese and arepita bread;

As I scurried back through the city, the rain and wind whipping up more and more, I sought shelter in the cosy little laneway-turned-undercover-restaurant-strip next to the old Post Office. There, in the warm, cosy gloom, a little concert was underway; a few hundred Indonesian people had gathered for a community celebration, to eat and drink and watch a Red Hot Chilli Peppers cover band. They were really good!

R.I.P. Kim Daul.

The top Korean model hanged herself in her Paris apartment on Thursday. I was really shocked and saddened by the news; Daul had gained my respect this year when she emerged as a fierce, free thinker. The victim of a particularly moralistic, Korean-style act of bullying, she fought back. The incident was raised by a topless (and blonde-haired) editorial shoot with prestigious London fashion magazine ” i-D “. Thousands of angry Koreans responded by flooding her with emails attacking her for being slutty or whorish, or not being proud of her Korean heritage and trying to make herself white. In an angry and articulate missive back, Daul fought back to say she was hugely proud of being Korean, but that for her that didn’t mean limiting herself, or being controlled by others. She asked if a white model who dyed her hair black would be accused of “trying to be Asian”, and pointed out that far from porn it was a shoot in one of the world’s most respected fashion magazines. She resolutely refused to bow, apologise, or meekly disappear from view. In giving the finger to her closed-minded and jingoistic detractors, she had my full support.

I can only wonder how much the incident contributed to her state of mind at the time of her death?

Daul is the ninth Korean celebrity to kill herself in a year.

Eerily, she is on the cover of the current edition of this magazine, in newsagents now:

Meanwhile, G-Dragon ( apparently a friend of Daul’s; he stayed at her Paris apartment on a recent European trip) has unveiled an (even more!) fabulous look in the December edition of “Vogue Korea”. The man is my personal style icon. he can do no wrong!

Finally, the big budget Hollywood movie “Ninja Assassin” opens next week , starring K-Pop deity Rain in a starring role. It is his second attempt at breaking Hollywood after the ill-fated “Speed Racer”.

2NE1 :A musical 21st (STREET)

Girl group 2NE1 will be performing a “musical”-style montage of their solo singles at tonight’s MAMA music awards in Seoul.

With the release of CL and Minzy’s single “Please Don’t Go” a few days ago, all four members now have solo material to perform (although the gorgeous Sandara Park is still far-and-away my favourite with “Kiss”).

In a surprisingly frank statement, the head of 2NE1’s record company said that the girls would all be promoting their solo careers for a while because the band was “more popular than expected” and their second album – due for release in November -has been delayed as it was simply “not strong enough”, and needs “extra work”.

So in the meantime. there is this …