Lost In Translation

Niesko, Japan

I'm not a skier, but if I was I guess I'd want to go here (this is from The NY Times Travel secion):

Japan is a country with extensive mountain ranges, literally hundreds of ski resorts and plentiful snow, yet a language barrier and the country’s distance from Western markets have long prevented it from becoming a major international ski destination.

That’s starting to change, especially at a resort called Niseko. Situated on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, Niseko has become wildly popular among Australians, who are attracted by the chance to ski world-class snow without suffering the jet lag they associate with North American and European resorts.

Australian-run tour operators based in Niseko have also played a major role in Niseko’s boom, and visitors will find that the language barrier has been greatly diminished, as many Japanese-run businesses have begun to cater to English-speaking tourists. The changes explain why Niseko’s real estate market is booming — and why the resort’s buzz is now reaching Europe and North America.

Language aside, Niseko’s selling point is snow. Especially from mid-December through February, the resort gets socked with winter storms that blow off Siberia and bury the mountain in some of the lightest, driest powder on the planet. The town of Kutchan, the seat of local government, records an average of nearly 500 inches a year. On-mountain averages are harder to come by, but local ski businesses say that Niseko frequently gets more than 600 inches a year. Vail in Colorado, by comparison, averages 348.

If you’re after bluebird skies, in other words, the Niseko winter is not for you.

The atmosphere can be surreal. Snow accumulates in the crooks of Niseko’s trees, forming huge, white pillows that give the mountain a Dr. Seuss-style air of unreality. Mount Yotei, a 6,227-foot volcanic cone that resembles Mount Fuji, dominates the view to the east — at least when snowstorms don’t blot it out.

China Journals

There were two interesting week long journals about China this week on Slate. The first, "The Kingdom of Women", is from The Well Traveled series and is written in a lively , engaging style by Cynthia Barnes:

In a vast valley high in Yunnan Province, China's manufacturing tiger purrs. Despite Yunnan's status as one of the poorest and least industrial provinces in the country, hundreds of smokestacks belch progress into the air. My chest begins to ache, and my breath comes short and hard. The guy in the next seat keeps smoking and throws a Coke bottle out the window. I check the map. We're crossing the Tropic of Cancer.

If this is the future, it is not pretty. The valley makes pre-EPA Pittsburgh look positively pastoral. There are few signs of the prosperity that often accompanies manufacturing jobs. The houses are crumbling huts. All of the people who aren't in the plants—mostly the very young and the very old—seem to be laboring in makeshift fields, wresting a little rice from the earth with no more than water buffalo and homemade hoes. Back home, Wal-Mart is slashing prices. In Yunnan, our economic competition is slashing and burning every square foot that industry hasn't appropriated.

I haven't come for the factories—though this is the ancestral home of my clothing and consumer electronics—but to check out this corner of China's booming tourist industry. The government has been pouring millions of yuan into convincing foreign and domestic visitors that Yunnan is the place to be. The region around Zhongdian has been redubbed "Shangri-La," and any halfway scenic spot is being spiffed up, signposted, buffed, and brochured into what the Chinese consider a desirable tourism destination.

In spite of the promotional push, word of Yunnan reached me via a Belgian documentary. I was numb in Phnom Penh after a day spent visiting the S-21 torture center and Cambodia's killing fields. Too depressed to go drinking, I flipped on the Discovery Channel and watched A World Without Fathers or Husbands. The film celebrates the matriarchal Mosuo ethnic minority. Located around Yunnan's Lugu Lake, "the kingdom of women" is portrayed as a paradise where free-loving females practice a catch-and-release system of courtship called "walking marriage." No divorce decrees, no baby daddies, no such thing as a "slut."

It sounds pretty sweet.

The second feature is from The Diary series and is titled "At Home In Shanghai"-it is written by Deborah Fallows:

Today has been a typical Monday in Shanghai. We moved here a few months ago, abandoning our home and friends in Washington, D.C., to come learn about China. We're reaching the point now where I can call a few things typical. Early each morning, for example, I go down 22 flights in the elevator of our 59-floor high-rise—which resembles a rocket ship—to walk outside and check the weather. It has been warm and pleasant almost every day this fall, although the biggest fluctuations have not been in temperature or wind, but in pollution. Even though Chinese television tends to report the weather in euphemisms—"misty in Chengdu; foggy in Shenyang; cloudy in Beijing"—I would describe it differently: "polluted in Chengdu; quite polluted in Shenyang; really polluted in Beijing." Today would be "foggy."

Bonus:There was a Dispatches Series, "Expats in Asia", on Korea by Rolff Potts, that I found interesting having been there a few times and how the teaching English experience is somewhat similar to that of Japan. Also, I remeber reading Potts' travel pieces from Salon.com., when they came out several years ago Apparently he has turned it into a career after havign written a book on travel.

Factotum

Factotum, directed by Norwegian Bent Harmer, will inevitably draw comparisons to the seminal Barfly, another famous film that was inspired by the writer Charles Bukowski. (Factotum is based on a novel by Bukowski) The standout performance by Mickey Rourke, who seemed to be channeling The Pink Panther in his interpretation of the Bukowski character, is the highlight of the film. And in this film, Matt Dillion, also gives an inspired performance that makes his usual film persona disappear as he inhabits the laconic and understated alpha male that is Henry Chinaski. I think he particularly gets the character across in his physicality. He gets excellent support from Lili Taylor as Jan and an almost unrecognizable Marisa Tomie as Laura. I found the story of low-life urbanity a bit tedious and uninspiring-getting canned from low level jobs due to his alcoholism as he tries to write amid the distractions of booze, broads, and the horses. All in all, an interesting film nonetheless, if not only for Dillion's notable performance.

AV Club Interview: Chuck Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman has a new book out, Chuck Klosterman IV, which I'd like to read soon. Here's a bit from the interview:

Chuck Klosterman Interviewed by Noel Murray November 15th, 2006

Since writing Fargo Rock City, a memoir of growing up as a heavy-metal fan in rural North Dakota, Chuck Klosterman has become one of the few pop-culture critics to become part of pop culture himself. His essay and reportage collections Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs; Killing Yourself To Live; and Chuck Klosterman IV (his latest) are popular among college students and rock-music devotees, and hated by some colleagues who find Klosterman glib and distastefully middle-of-the-road in his opinions. Klosterman recently spoke with The A.V. Club about his working habits, his reputation, and his growing disillusion with the art of criticism

***

AVC: You don't write much about things you hate. You're enthusiastic about some things, and you try to adjust the general opinion of well-loved things closer toward the middle. Occasionally you write about things you strongly dislike. But by and large, you aren't a panner.

CK: Yeah. I mean, I don't… The thing that has always baffled me about people's perception of my writing is the sense that I'm a very controversial, opinionated, polarizing person. I feel like I write about things that I'm interested in, and I describe why they're interesting to me. I could be negative, I guess. It's far easier to write why something is terrible than why it's good. If you're reviewing a film and you decide "This is a movie I don't like," basically you can take every element of the film and find the obvious flaw, or argue that it seems ridiculous, or like a parody of itself, or that it's not as good as something similar that was done in a previous film. What's hard to do is describe why you like something. Because ultimately, the reason things move people is very amorphous. You can be cerebral about things you hate, but most of the things you like tend to be very emotive. It's really hard to do a literary reproduction of what makes you happy. That's what I try to do, I guess. If nothing else, it seems like there's enough people out there telling the world what isn't cool, or what's terrible, or what's depressing. I think there's an element of cynicism in my writing, but I'm an optimistic cynic..

Caught In The Carousel

I recently became aquainted with writer Alex Green via my review of his excellent book, The Stone Roses. I have been having some personal correspondance with him via email. He has given me a link to his website, Caught In The Carousel, cataloguing his writing on music and other endeavors-so check it out if you are so inclined.

In The iPod: New & Old

I haven't really been getting much new music, but I have been expanding my collection. The newest album I've gotten is The Killer's Sam's Town, which is somewhat of a disappointment for me. I think they've abandoned their 80s aesthetic gone for a more traditional approach to rock, which isn't as appealing for me. However there are some good songs like the title track and "Read My Mind."

Then there's She Will Have Her Way: The Songs of Tim & Neil Finn, which is a two CD set that has interpretations of songs by aforementioned brothers various project from the new wave Splitz Endz to Crowded House and solo recordings. These interpretations are by female artist, hence the title. The other disc has the original recordings-I had most of the Crowded House stuff already, but I also have always liked Split Endz-so it's nice to have access to those songs as well.

The two volumes of The Veronica Mars TV Series Soundtrack has some interesting stuff like tracks from an obscure New York bands form the 90s like Ivy and tracks from breaking acts like The Faders and The Dandelions. A lot of it is new to me, but there are also more familiar and established acts like The Hives, Fountains of Wayne, Corn, Marc Doughty and Spoon among others.

This in turn, has led me to get two Spoon albums: Gimme Fiction and Girls Can Tell. This seems like an indie rock band that I can get into, but I still haven't had enough listens to be absolutely sure, but my initial reactions to the band are good.

I think I may have completed my Ryan Adams discography with Whiskeytown's album Stranger's Almanac. I really should have gotten all of those albums when they were released; they were right up my alley as far as the alterna-country thing goes.

I've also been filling in the gaps of my Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album collection. And I've found that his work is so strong that even his most poorly received album, Nocturama, is pretty impressive and has some great highlights like "Rock Of Gibraltar." I am particularly enjoying Let Love In and the bootleg Songs For A November Evening, which has his two impressive tracks from movie soundtracks recorded for Wim Wenders films-"(I'll Love You) Until The End Of The World" and "Faraway So Close." But there is something worthwhile on all of his albums including new acquisitions like The Good Son and Henry's Dream.

I also acquired some nostalgic recordings-The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths, If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues, and Pure Cult (which is a collection of singles by Cult) all of these were high school/college favorites in the day.

Book Club: The Next Attack

I've rejoined the monthly book club, and the book that has been selected for this month is The Next Attack by Daniel Benjamin and Steve Simon. In this book Benjamin and Simon show how the terrorist threat has evolved since 9/11, and where the foreign policy decisions have put us in relation to the ongoing terrorist threats. The biased trail of decisions that led up to the invasion of Iraq is astounding really-that a clique of appointed officials could ignore experts and work against people in their own government to bring about a costly and unjustified war. I think they are also particularly good when it comes to analyzing terrorist acts that have taken place outside the US since 9/11 and what they say about the spread of these terrorist activities and attitudes. Finally, they makes suggestions on how to prevent/prepare for another terrorist attack. Frankly, some of the scenarios they make might be instructive to any terrorist who might be reading this book. It is interesting to note that the war on terror might be moving in a new direction in light of the elections and the firing of Rumsfield. But I don't think we're going to see too many major foreign policy changes until the Bush administration is out of power. It is a well researched and provocative book, too bad no one who is in a position to make policy changes would consider what has been proposed here.

25 For $25 In Seattle

I found this in Gridskipper, which might be of interest to those of you in Seattle:

25 top Seattle restaurants are offering three-course meals for the course of November for 25 dollars. Unlike some of the restaurant week shenanigans known in these parts (a tasting menu of mixed green salad, chicken breast or salmon and ice cream) these restaurants are not stingy dishing out their prime dishes for a reduced price. Ah, the good PacWest. Among the participating restos are Cascadia, offering a roast pumpkin bisque and lamb T-bone and Tulio, an Italian restaurant offering a lavender rack of pork. This being on the coast, a preponderance of the restaurants in general are fish oriented. The program runs til November 30th.

Blue Wednesday

Here's a funny little note from my friend Mike about the recent election:

so long, Rick Santorum. i'll miss your oddly-endearing homophobic prattling. and i'll miss you too, Mark Foley. your IMs didn't make me horny, but they did make me FOTF-LOL. text me some time. or do they let you do that in rehab? goodbye to you too, Conrad Burns. i hope you stashed away some of that Abramoff money. and farewell, George Allen, you crazy ol' makaka. are you're familiar with the 'L' word? look on the bright side, Don Sherwood, now you'll have more time to spend abusing your mistress. bye bye, Tom DeLay. maybe if you campaign hard enough they'll let you be Cell Block C Majority Leader. and i bet your nickname 'the hammer' will take on a whole new meaning. best of luck to you, Ken Blackwell and Mike DeWine. don't feel too bad. you can't be expected to fix EVERY election. nice try, Katherine Harris. if only you'd worn just a little bit more eyeliner. goodbye Lincoln Chafee. i know you were a moderate, and i honestly did like you, but you had one of those big ugly 'R's next to your name, so you had to go. and Don Rumsfeld, what can i say? Rumy, i'll miss you the most. there are things we know and things we don't know and things we know we don't know and things we don't know we don't know, but one thing we do know is that you are now unemployed.

i hear KBR is hiring truck drivers.

Night Light