Influential blogger Baye McNeil (a.k.a. Loco) of Loco In Yokohama notoriety recently released his powerful, controversial and much anticipated debut book Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist. The self-published book was auspiciously released on January 15 2012, the birthday of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.

The theme of the book – racism – as suggested by the book’s title, was triggered by a compilation of Loco’s own racial observations and encounters in Japan since his expatriation to the island nation around 8 years ago. He also draws inspiration from a lifetime of experiences starting from his childhood on the streets of Brooklyn, New York.

The 392-page book was spawned by a thought-provoking and critically-acclaimed series of posts that appeared on Loco’s blog – Loco In Yokohama – last year. The series was provocatively entitled “Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist”, the book’s namesake, where he candidly and openly explored the issue of racism sharing with his readers a dearth of unpleasant interactions with everyday people of Japan and contemplated whether these interactions were as a result of racism, xenophobia or another fear-based feeling that his presence inspired. His postulations ignited a raging debate on his blog which prodded Loco to continue the quest in search of an answer.

The immense popularity of the blog series gave birth to the book, which is available as an e-book on Kindle with a digital list price of US$9.99. The paperback version is still being perfected and due for imminent release. Tune in on the buzz about this dream-fulfilling endeavour by an iconic j-blogger and all-round good guy by checking out the following positive vibes:

• Hikosaemon’s brutally honest review
• Bad Communication’s Episode 78: A Loco Chinese New Year
• Amanda Taylor: This is What a Racist Sounds Like
• Tonya Moore’s Baye McNeil Interview
• Our Man In Abiko: 10 Q&As WITH @LOCOHAMA
• J808: Birth of a Legend…
• Foreign Salaryman: It’s completely Loco!
• jlandkev’s YouTube channel: Hi! My Name is Loco and I Am a Racist: the book
• Jay Dee in Japan: Can bloggers be authors?
• The official “Hi! My Name is Loco” site
• Loco In Yokohama – where it all began

Due to censorship, Japan is infamous for using a wide variety of stand-ins for the phallus. The use of tentacles for example has a long history, dating back to the 19th century when Edo period artist Hokusai was one of the first to depict tentacle erotica with The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife, and the following sub-genre of women engaging in sexual activity with sea creatures.

In what appears to be porn that only a locksmith can appreciate Door Knob Girl has appeared on the scene, and bless her E. coli licking heart. Door Knob Girl is a website gone viral that features, you guessed it, a collection of photos of girls licking doorknobs.

It begs the question – has Door Knob Girl been spawned by all of the pixelation and mosaicing required by the Japanese censorship laws to obscure genitalia in Japanese pornography or is she just another one of those “Only in Japan” fetishes? According to it’s creators – artist Ryuko Azuma and photographer Ai Ehara – Door Knob Girl is simply psychosexual art.

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Back when my first child Ash-kun was born I remember how helpless I felt being there as my missus zoomz underwent a prolonged and painful labour. zoomz had insisted on giving birth naturally and she was a damn hell of a trooper about it as well. Unfortunately the Gods were not on her side that day. Ash-kun had failed to progress after 12 torturous hours and he had started to show signs of distress. It was therefore decided that he would be delivered by Caesarean section.

I accompanied zoomz to the operating theater where a team of obstetricians prepared to perform the C-section. To obstruct our view of the action that was about to occur they placed a screen over zoomz’s chest. On the ‘business end’ side of the screen the doctor made an incision in her abdominal wall and uterus and pulled Ash-kun from the womb and into the world.

The doctor held Ash-kun up and proudly announced “Congratulations! It’s a boy!” I popped my head above the screen for a look and remember thinking “Oh My God! It’s a frog! No, it’s an alien frog!” To be brutally honest, there was a fleeting moment where I had wondered if he was a science experiment gone wrong. In Ash-kun’s defence the poor kid was overdue and a Caesar which I guess meant that, without a vaginal delivery, he didn’t have the chance to get the juices squeezed from him on the way out giving him a bloated ‘alien frog’ look and a pair of Simpson-esque eyes.

Crazy Frog

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