Macklemore at Sizzler in Tokyo! Why I Love Japan: Episode #287 "Profanity on the Background Music at Family Restaurants"

*This article is not censored! 今日１１：３０ごろMacklemoreは世田谷Sizzlerで！！！！

Yo! Japan rocks. There's a million reasons why Japan is one of the best places to live in the whole world. Ask any American who can choose to live in the USA or Japan why they stay here... There's no comparison.

Macklemore was at Sizzler today in Tokyo! Really! I heard him! 

Did I say, "Japan Rocks"!? I did? Okay.

Yo! Check it! Reason #287 why Japan rocks: No BS politically correct censorship on the radio or at the in-store background music in public places.

Nope. Japan doesn't have a fascist FCC type of organization telling stations what they can and cannot air and what kind of language is appropriate. Japanese broadcasting stations have the right to censor themselves. There is no quasi-government organization pushing their shit Christian ethic on the rest of the public.. And when it comes to the language, there's no such thing as "Seven Words That You Can Never Say on Television"... They certainly don't have it in English, either....

In Japan, there's no PC crowd or organization saying that children can't hear words broadcasted on TV, radio and films that they hear their parents and neighbors saying all the god-damned time at home anyway!

Today, I took my wife and son to Sizzler. You know, the family steak house chain that originally came from the USA. It was wonderful. We had the salad bar set like we always do.

I laughed when Macklemore & Ryan Lewis came over the piped in music and they started singing these words:

I’m gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket 
I’m, I’m, I’m hunting, looking for a come up, this is fucking awesome 

Now walk into the club like "What up?! I got a big cock!" 
Nah, I’m just pumped, I bought some shit from the thrift shop 
Ice on the fringe is so damn frosty 
The people like “Damn, that’s a cold ass honky” 
Rolling in hella deep, headed to the mezzanine 
Dressed in all pink except my gator shoes, 
those are green Draped in a leopard mink, 
girl standing next to me Probably should've washed this, 
smells like R.Kelly sheets 
Piss.... 

But shit, it was 99 cents 
Buy it, coppin' it, washin' it, 
‘bout to go and get some compliments 
Passing up on those moccasins someone else has been walking in 
Bummy and grungy, fucking it, 
I am stunting and flossing and Saving my money and I’m hella happy, 
that’s a bargain bitch 
I’ma take your grandpa's style, I’ma take your grandpa's style 
No for real, ask your grandpa, can I have his hand-me-downs? 
Velour jumpsuit and some house slippers 
Dookie Brown leather jacket that I found digging 
They had a broken keyboard, I bought a broken keyboard 
I bought a skeet blanket, then I bought a knee board 
Hello, hello, my ace man, my mellow John Wayne ain’t got nothing on my fringe game, 
hell no I could take some Pro Wings, make them cool, sell those 
The sneaker heads would be like “Ah, he got the Velcros” 

What you know about rocking a wolf on your noggin? 
What you knowing about wearing a fur fox skin? 
I’m digging, I’m digging, 
I’m searching right through that luggage 
One man’s trash, that’s another man’s come up 
Thank your granddad for donating that plaid button- Up shirt, 
‘cause right now, I’m up in hurr stuntin' I’m at the Goodwill, 
you can find me in the (Uptons) 
I’m that, I’m that sucker searchin' in that section (Uptons) 
Your grammy, your aunty, your momma, your mammy 
I’ll take those flannel zebra jammies, 
second hand and I’ll rock that motherfucker 
The built-in onesie with the socks on the motherfucker 
I hit the party and they stop in that motherfucker 
They be like “Oh that Gucci, that’s hella tight” 
I’m like “Yo, that’s fifty dollars for a t-shirt” 
Limited edition, let’s do some simple addition 
Fifty dollars for a t-shirt, 
that’s just some ignorant bitch shit I call that getting swindled and pimped, 
shit I call that getting tricked by business 
That shirt’s hella dope 
And having the same one as six other people in this club is a hella don’t 
Peep game, come take a look through my telescope 
Trying to get girls from a brand? 
Then you hella won’t 
Man you hella won’t, 
man you hella won't


I’m gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket 
I’m, I’m, I’m hunting, looking for a come up, this is fucking awesome 

As I chuckle and enjoy the tune, the rest of the patrons at the restaurant enjoy the pleasant piped in music. To the left of me there's a table with a family with two little girls who look to be 4 or 5 years old... They enjoy the music, the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant....

I love Japan! It's fucking awesome!

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PS: Yo Dawg! I am proud to say that we were was the first ones to play Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in Japan on the FM radio one day before release on August 27, 2012 (thanks to my dear friend Willie Gee in Los Angeles!) As of today, Feb. 2, 2013, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop" has hit #1 on Billboard Digital music charts for three weeks in a row! Awesome! Macklemore is awesome!

Big Problems for Facebook Users?

Facebook is just starting to get bigger in Japan but there seems to be a problem with people's privacy and Facebook being used as a political "toy." It has been alleged that Facebook is used for cointelpro, spying, so-called, "Black-budget" operations and censorship.

This is alarming since nearly 30% of all the 1.9 billion Internet users in the entire world have a Facebook account.

As the Examiner reports:

Investigation has revealed that Facebook.com has denied its users access to critical extraterrestrial disclosure information, and has sabotaged Facebook groups intended for organizing a boycott against BP, the oil giant responsible for the April 20, 2010 BP Gulf oil spill false flag operation, through the use of sophisticated spying and cointelpro Facebook.com software attack techniques.

One of the cointelpro-type attacks carried out by Facebook.com and documented by mainstream media newspaper Politico was against Facebook members who attempted to organize a boycott on Facebook.com against BP, one of the corporate perpetrators of the April 20, 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill that has devastated the ecology, economy, and population of the Gulf area.

These sophisticated spying and cointelpro Facebook.com software attack techniques could only be employed with the explicit approval of an upper management executive and venture capital level at Facebook.com.    This Facebook.com upper level advertises its easy, open access to U.S. President Barack Obama, one of the largest recipients of campaign contributions from BP, and whose Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, received a $500 million grant from BP prior to joining the Obama cabinet.

This is depressing enough as it is, but further down the same article alleges some very fishy goings-on with the financing of Facebook:

The reality of most of Facebook.com’s capitalization, and its integration with the mission of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Information Awareness Office (IAO)...

Key Facebook.com capitalization was supplied through the Central Intelligence Agency investment front company InQTel, whose Board member Dr. Anita Jones was a former high-ranking official of DARPA and of the U.S. Department of Defense Information Awareness Office.

Still think this is no problem? Watch this video for a real eye-opener. It shows that whenever you use Facebook, you irrevocably give up all your rights when it come to someone data mining your private information:

Twitter Censorship? Not Good News.

(See BIG updates on this story at bottom)

Is Twitter guilty of censorship and Algorithmic Propaganda? Have they stepped over the line and gotten themselves involved with taking sides in political turmoil? Are they just another tool in the government's arsenal of propaganda? Is the new doll of Social Media and marketing, Twitter, guilty of censoring topics that make them and their stock-holders feel uncomfortable? Could Twitter be the newest member of the American Military-Industrial Complex? (Wow! Pretty sensational stuff, eh?) 

Let's hope not... But, I hate to say, this doesn't look too good for Twitter. Read on and you decide.

There's trouble brewing in Twitter-land, my friends...The word on the Blogosphere is that Twitter was censoring the #flotilla hashtag during the Israeli raids on May 31 on the ships that were heading to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.

At any given time, on the Twitter sidebar, one can see what is trending. At one point during the raids,   the #flotilla hashtag or information pertaining to  "Deaths on Convoys" (etc.) were ranking in the top. Then suddenly, as soon as they shot to the top, they were gone; these topics were completely "disappeared."

After their disappearance, if you searched for the #flotilla hashtag you got a result saying, "Twitter error." This was highly suspicious and, I suspect, the catalyst for many thinking that Twitter was censoring the #flotilla hashtag because most of the Tweets were critical of Israel.

Trendsmap shows Twitter hashtags being used following the attack by Israel on the convoy to Gaza

Now, when I say that Twitter might be guilty of manipulation and censorship, don't think that I am talking out of my hat. Already, twice in the past, Twitter has freely admitted to manipulating the trending sidebar. Once, during the Iran elections, after a call from the US State Department (when a revolution was supposedly going on when there wasn't one at all), Twitter voluntarily "disappeared" information from Iran and "#iranelections" in particular.

The second time that Twitter intentionally disappeared something was Justin Bieber. Laughable, but true. Yes, it's ridiculous, but Twitter did this. As many of you might know, Justin is an international teenage star. So when Justin was trending at the top, day-in and day-out, the management of Twitter decided that they were tired of seeing Justin Bieber's name at the top of the trending topics so they deleted his topics...

Justin Bieber's photo cunningly placed here just to irritate Twitter management

Yes, I too, would like to see Justin Bieber "disappeared" also (just kidding, of course), but on Twitter? Is that incredibly anal-retentive or what? I'm sure the management of Twitter would have never done this if the top trending artist was someone they personally liked like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or Barry Manilow.

So, did Twitter manipulate trends during the Israeli attack on the humanitarian mission? They are keeping their mouths shut for now, but this smells bad and the Blogosphere is demanding actions!

But, one thing remains, as can be gleamed from the #iranelections and Justin Bieber stories, is that  Twitter is culpable - as they have freely admitted - to news manipulation. Now the word on the Blogosphere is that Twitter has stepped over the line and is guilty of censorship and playing politics. If so, shame on you Twitter!

I think this does not bode well for the future of Twitter. You saw some of the repercussions to the MSM (Mainstream Media) after news manipulation before, during, and after the Iraq War. I don't think that, in this age of lightening quick communication that a company, like Twitter, can benefit by this sort of Skullduggery.

George Orwell's 1984

When Twitter manipulates the Trend-bar on the side, it's exactly the same as how Wall Street manipulates prices and that is criminal... A far better, and much older example, would be the "Memory Hole" down which Winston Smith "disappeared" people and news items in the classic, 1984.

What's next for Twitter? Manipulating and selling their top ranked slots like Billboard Magazine does for its music charts?

Like I said, I am not happy about this information concerning Twitter and think it is an infringement on our rights as a free people. The Internet was supposed to be the media that freed us from the bonds of the old media. If Twitter doesn't change its ways, then this could be the beginning of a long slide and they will lose me as a user....

Losing me as a user doesn't hurt Twitter much at all, but losing me and 100 million other teeny-bopper Justin Bieber fans probably does hurt. And with Twitter pushing very hard in Japan - a country full of apolitical people - I could see how they could need this market more desperately than ever...  Especially if they keep up this censorship in the west and there comes a time when people boycott Twitter or it gets a bad name.

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UPDATE! In what could be good news! According to Guardian UK, Twitter did not intentionally censor #flotilla. The Guardian article update states:

So: shock as Twitter not being used to censor news. But it does show the enormous sensitivity there now is about Twitter's impartiality that any suggestion that a world event might be pushed out of its "trending topics" (displayed on the right-hand column of every Twitter user's home page) can create such frustration.


(Admittedly, the Guardian UK is old school MSM and, as such, information from them is to be taken with a grain of salt.)


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UPDATE TWO! Yep! Twitter did it! They manipulated the "trending"!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/09/iran-twitter-revolution-protests

From that article: Twitter’s ‘Trending Topics’ index was manipulated has been confirmed. By manipulating ‘green revolution’ and other # tags to float up the index, Twitter was able to manufacture a #revolution that for the most part, was grossly exaggerated.  Whether or not Twitter simply did this purely for marketing purposes or was hacked by the Pentagon to help sell more weapons has yet to be disclosed.

• Iran’s ‘Twitter revolution’ was exaggerated, says editor

Thanks to Max Keiser 

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* If you would like to check daily, weekly or monthly trends on Twitter, go to here: Trendistic 

* From my point of view, as they say, "A picture speaks a thousand words" since Pick is better for photos than Twitter, then Pick looks much better day by day. Pick: http://naver.jp/mikeintokyorogers

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Keywords:  marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Pick, Justin Bieber, George Orwell, 1984, Internet, Japan, censorship, manipulation, market, media, #flotilla, hashtag, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers