Take care of the sounds, and the sense will take care of itself

Now this is interesting. I have the Death Note anime theme stuck in my head. It's a terrific little rock song. The thing is, my Japanese is practically non-existent (I have pretty much the same handful of words as any gaijin otaku, desu). So what the heck is my grey matter actually playing? As I "listen" to the earworm, I can pick out a few syllables, a few consonants and vowels, but certainly nothing like words. I suppose my brain's recorded the singing as though it's music - it's remembering the sounds of Japanese as though they were the sounds of instruments. What's really interesting to contemplate is how many English lyrics are encoded up there in the same way, for the same reason - for example, I can usually only remember bits of Yes lyrics, because there's no clear meaning to help my memory along. But what about pop songs with meaningful lyrics where I still can never remember the words? *opens head to inspect porridge*

(no subject)

aaaaaaaaaaaaand now I have Jon's cold.

Told you so

Deported refugee shot dead

Asylum seeker shot dead, 6 years after deportation

Immigration looks into Palestinian death

An era of shame we can ill afford to forgive or forget

Bric a Brac

From May: Philip Glenister at the Genesis DVD premiere

From June: Facebook changes luck for lonely cat

Also from June: Opinion piece on the demise of the Australian Democrats

Also also from June: Escapee caught in air-con duct

From February 1940: Careless Talk Costs Lives posters

jb_wolfsies overhears a cheeky tram driver.

insidian is starstruck and tongue-tied.

Quotes about stupidity. (It was the first one that got me.)

A marvellous memorial to Grimmy, the departed Boston Terrier, in the form of a brilliant YouTube clip.

This bit was cut from Top Gear for reasons which rapidly become obvious.

Failure is just success rounded down.

When cakes go wrong

Behold ktelqueen's record collection. (We had Goofy Greats.)

Kitten vs air molecules