Lost In Translation

Everyone Poops

Apparently this topic is of interest to more than just my family at dinner time. This book review is from Today's Daily Yomuiri:

Breaching poop taboo a surprising success

Peter Howlett and Richard McNamara / Special to the Daily Yomiuri

Everyone Poops (Minna Unchi)

Written and illustrated by Taro Gomi

The Gas We Pass--The Story of Farts (Onara)

Written and illustrated by Shinta Cho

Both titles translated by Amanda Mayer Stinchecum

Original editions by Fukuinkan Shoten (English editions by Kane/Miller Book Publisher)

Everyone Poops. We're not sure we could find a more straightforward, back-to-basics statement than this. But this is not just a statement, this is the name of Japan's best-selling English translated picture book. It's not one of Japan's favorite folktales, such as Momotaro (Peach Boy) or Urashima Taro, but rather a story about our "number twos" that ranks in as No. 1. With sales of 947,000,--10,000 above the original and having won the Amazon.com Bestseller in Category Award, this title is, according to Mariko Ogawa, foreign rights editor of Fukuinkan, probably Japan's top picture book export.

The story opens to a great big poop, an elephant poop to be exact and continues.

Okii zo wa okii unchi.

Chiisai nezumi wa chiisai unchi.

An elephant makes a big poop.

A mouse makes a tiny poop.

Gomi's simple and colorful illustrations and his humorous yet matter-of-fact text goes on to describe the poops of all kinds of animals, their shapes, colors and smells.

The article goes onto to talk about another book about farting. Click here to read more.

The Shins Live In Tokyo

Last night I got to see one of my favorite bands, The Shins, in concert at Harajuku Astro Hall. It was my first time to this venue, which is just down the street from where I used to live. It's tiny, so matter where you stand it's a good place, especailly if you're tall. However, it was 4500 yen plus one drink for 500 yen-5000 total (about $50). I'm guessing you can see The Shins for about $15 in the US, oh well. It was the Shins first visit to Japan and I fear they didn't win many new fans, because the audience was 80% foreigners. A ratio I had never seen before outside a gaijin bar that has free music (What The Dickens! for example). Of these foreigners, 95% were indie rock hipsters with ironic T-shirts and value village wardrobes-it could have been The Crcodile Cafe in Belltown (downtown Seattle) for that matter. Furthermore, I was at least 10 years older than 70% of them as well. I guess that's the crowd that you get when you are on heavy rotation at college radio stations and do most of your promotion through English language poublications in Tokyo. I hope more Japanese people attend their show in Osaka. It was an excellent show, the band is extremely tight and moved from easily from British Invasion-inspired songs to rootsy numbers. James Mercer is already a mature songwriter, which was evident by his complex lyrics, which were easier to hear live than on the recordings. It's interesting to note that even thugh Mercer wrote and sings almost all of the songs he gives way center stage to extroverted keyboardist/guitarist Marty Crandall, who did his best to entertain inbetween songs. All my favorite songs were played, and they ended their encore with my favorite "Gone For Good" from the excellent Chutes Too Narrow. A local band Sparta Local opened, they weren't bad, a little too earnest for my liking, but they had a core group of about 20 fans who were jumping around and singing along to their songs.

Film Notes: End Of The Century

Sunday night I saw End Of The Century, a documentary about the seminal and pioneering punk band The Ramones. It was a remarkable film for several reasons. First of all, if you are an obsessive punk/pop music fanatic like myself (I’ve read a 400 page pseudo-intellectual book on the birth of punk in England), you will appreciate the insights into the epoch making music of true rock pioneers. I was fascinated by the band’s origins and the details behind the recording of the albums. The fact that they came out with 2 and 3 chord, two minute long songs in an era where solos and instrument virtuousity ruled the airwaves with bands like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Pink Floyd, etc...it was revolutionary. But, I think this film could appeal to anyone just because of the personalities of the band members, four people who couldn’t be more different: Joey, the reclusive, obsessive compulsive, Jewish-liberal, freaky-looking giant; Johnny, the iron-fisted leader who was a right wing punk rocker; Dee Dee, the drug addled, misguided lost soul; Tommy, the intellectual soft-spoken, but passive drummer-who eventually couldn’t put up with the others during all the touring. Of course, there were several other band members, and people associated with the band that feature in the film that add to it as well. Tommy's replacement, Marky had to be let go at one time becasue of a drining problem, the album they made with the crazy, gun toting Phil Spector made great copy, not to mention the fact that Dee Dee quit to make a rap album!? of all things. The story is amazing, and the fact that they stayed together so long is startling-especially given that at some point Johnny stole Joey’s girlfriend (who he eventually married) and they basically stopped talking for more than a decade. Their influence on modern rock is undeniable. It’s sad that they never really got their due, they were just like the other great influential and underappreciated giants of the 70s who never got their commercial due: The Velvet Underground, Iggy and The Stooges, The New York Dolls, and Big Star.