Lost In Translation

Radical Honesty, GQ, and Celebrity Life

This month’s Esquire has a funny and thought-provoking article about telling the truth, I Think You’re Fat by A.J. Jacobs. He heard about a new movement called radical honesty and thought it might be an interesting experiment to try and stop lying and adopt radical honesty. It made for an entertaining article. But this idea of losing your filter and saying exactly what’s on your mind seems like a good idea, but I think in reality it isn’t such a good idea, which I think Jacobs can concur with, however he mentioned that he intends to lie less in the future. It reminds me of my grandma, she was a bitter, opinionated woman. I was constantly mortified by her lack of a filter telling wait staff that they didn’t deserve tips, bad mouthing my mother in front of me, criticizing trying to belittle my grown father in front of us kids, and the list goes on and on. I ‘ve come to the conclusion that sometimes it just isn’t worth it to let people know how you really feel-live and let live is a much better policy in my opinion. However, there is a time to tell people what you think and that’s when they’ve crossed a line-stole something from a friend of yours, used a racial slur, asked for the phone number a girl gave you, started a fight for no reason, bullied someone weaker, and so on. Then you should have the courage to exhibit “radical honesty.” I think too many people don’t want to get involved.

Here’s a bonus commentary on the Angelina Jolie celebrity profile, “Angelina Jolie Dies For Our Sins,” which appeared in the same July issue. The Slate writer feels the need to use four pages to protest how over the top it is, however he does have some points. I guess I kind of ignored the saintly prose and was more interested about her charity in Cambodia a country I have been to. I mean at least she does try to use her celebrity for something other than bigger film paydays.

I mean "Cotrarian Douchebag" Christopher Hitchens defended Paris Hilton at Slate earlier this month. This is the same man who criticized Mother Teresa and Princess Di. Just trying to make waves as usual I guess.

Hidden Tokyo

Here's an interesting article from The NY Times on the "hidden" nightlife of Tokyo:

For those looking to trade their track suits for a kimono, the retro-chic is partly a reaction to Tokyo's bloated cosmopolitan nightlife, which continues to be dominated by huge dance clubs with aspirational American names like Harlem, Air and Unit. One of the more popular these days is Womb in Shibuya, which draws thousands on Friday nights dressed in almost identical T-shirts and limited-edition sneakers, dancing to techno under blue lights, a giant disco ball and the ubiquitous chill-out lounge with white vinyl banquettes.

Hidden bars, by contrast, are as Japanese as geishas and toro. Some, after all, are the unadulterated originals, built as brothels before the war, and somehow overlooked by bulldozing developers.

The largest remaining tract is Golden Gai, a ghetto of vintage bars on a bamboo-lined backstreet in the Shinjuku district that is clogged with so-called hostess bars. In the 1960s and 70s, when prostitution moved elsewhere, the Golden Gai became a refuge for boozy intellectuals, including the writers Yukio Mishima and Akiyuki Nosaka. (It is also where Wim Wenders filmed scenes for his 1985 documentary, “Tokyo-Ga.”)

On a Tuesday evening last January, the narrow alleys of Golden Gai still exuded a seedy air, lined with a few rusty chairs and mops leaning against walls. A bar, Flapper, retained its forlorn plastic sign, a cartoonish silhouette of an hourglass-shaped temptress, with red letters rendered in a pre-computer font. Through a crack in the door, I spied a rumpled, bleary-eyed bartender holding court with a group of young men in crisp jeans and expensive sweatshirts.

Not sure if this writer is a local or not but Air and Unit aren't "bloated" nightclubs, but then again they're not holes in the wall either.

Everyman

Philip Roth’s Everyman is a short but satisfying read. It has several elements from many of Roth’s other novels-philandering husbands, old men coming to terms with their loss of sexuality, bad marriages, distant children, and memories of times past. I suppose the title is a nod to the old English play about the summoning of the living to the dead, something that “everyman” must face at some point in time. Roth’s knowledge of heart disease and the aging and failure of the body is extensive and adds a certain dread to the novel, knowing that we will all get old and eventually die. It is short, but powerful. I guess it is something that has been on his own mind as he approaches 80.

Easy Tiger-Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams has a new album out, Easy Tiger, and apparently he's got himself under control these days, this is from a recent NY Times article:

Among Mr. Adams’s friends, colleagues and fans the hope is that “Easy Tiger,” a title that speaks wryly for itself, will complete his restoration. It is focused — read: not insanely self-indulgent — in a way that recalls albums of his like “Heartbreaker” and “Gold,” high points in a catalog that defines the term checkered. In one among many orchestrated signs of Mr. Adams’s stature, Stephen King wrote the record company bio that will accompany the album’s release on June 26. Mr. King calls it “maybe the best Ryan Adams CD ever.”

The plan is for it to be his biggest seller as well. Mr. Adams is touring to promote it, and “Two,” which features a harmony vocal by Sheryl Crow, has been released as a single. Starbucks will carry “Easy Tiger,” and pre-order campaigns have been set up with iTunes, Amazon and other outlets. For an artist whose notoriety has far exceeded his sales to date, it’s a full-on marketing push.

Mr. Adams has also reunited with his former manager, John Silva, a veteran who has worked with the independent-minded likes of Nirvana, Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys. ”I just crawled back and said, ‘Look, I made a mistake, many mistakes — I don’t know what to do,’ ” Mr. Adams said.

“I got good advice on what tunes seemed to be working, and how to pace myself,” he said about Mr. Silva’s help in putting together “Easy Tiger” from the dozens of songs he was considering. “He led me to view that process as a type of discipline — like going to the gym or something. Focus. Work on one thing. Make the one thing really good.”

Leonardo DaVinci Art Exhibition

My friend Ken's brother, Jun Shiozawa, has a cool cartoon review of the Leonardo Art Exhibiton in Tokyo at Tokyo Art Beat site.

Apocalypto

I have to say that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Mel Gibson’s film Apocalypto, despite misgivings about his earlier films. I caught the second half of it while on vacation in Thailand earlier this year-I couldn’t pull myself away from the TV, because the chase scene was so thrilling. So I knew that I had to see it on the big screen, so I recently saw it on the big screen here in Tokyo and it reinforces my initial observations about the film. It is such an amazing spectacle, however the film takes on a political or biased interpretation with the quote that precedes the film: "A great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within," by Will Durant. It ends with Spaniards coming ashore, which suggests that the environmental degradation coupled with the abundant human sacrifices caused the end of the Mayan civilization, which is historically inaccurate. I wonder if uber-Christian Gibson is trying to suggest the godless savages had it coming, but message aside it is a thrilling and entertaining film. It is not for the squeamish, because there’s a lot of bloody violence and death. This article asks if Apocalypto is "pornography."I guess he conceived the film with a co-writer when they discussed what they loved about films and Gibson supposedly based the chase part of the movie is completely derivative of the 1966 film "The Naked Prey." Pure action flick, with one ridiculous encounter after another and that’s the aspect of the film that stands out for me. Well worth seeing in my opinion.

Love In Shinjuku

This sculpture by Robert Indiana is in front of the Shinjuku I-Land Building in West Shinjuku-home of the latest Burger King.

Tarantino's Back In Town

Here's the latest from Japan Today:

Quentin Tarantino, center, director Takashi Miike, left, and actress Kaorio Momoi attend a news conference in Tokyo Monday to mark the completion of filming for the sukiyaki western "Django," in which Tarantino plays Ringo, a master gunfighter in feudal Japan. Even though Tarantino is the only non-Japanese in the film, "Django" is entirely in English. Miike and Momoi said they wanted to show the world that Japanese actors could make movies in English and not "lose" to "Memoirs of a Geisha." The film opens worldwide in September.

The End Of The Sopranos

I’ve just finished watching the final episode of The Sopranos, if you haven’t, then it's time to stop reading.

It was appropriate, but very unsatisfying, but it isn’t surprising given what I have heard and learned about David Chase not liking messages and wanting to stay true to his version of the story. It seems that in Chase’s version, where art imitates life:people don’t change easily, things happen and life goes on no matter what. I have been reading people’s reactions to the final episode and some of them seemed surprising to me-for example suggesting that Paulie was a snitch because he turned down Tony’s job offer and then frowned after Tony browbeat him into taking it after all. Some people suggested the screen going black suggested that Tony got hit-which never occurred tome because I think using Journey’s song “Don’t Stop Believin” was suggesting that thing go on, even if it is the final episode of The Sopranos-they live on to struggle with an upcoming court battle, remodeling the beach house, going to law school, or working in the movie biz. The tension surrounding that scene was absolutely unnerving since there were several red herrings put into the final scene to make you think something was going to happen. And when it did the screen went blank. However, I do think it’s better to leave it to the audience’s imagination to decide for themselves what happens. So in this way I approve of the ending, because in comparison I didn’t like the Six Feet Under Final episode, which had to show us the fate of every single character with a flash-forward at the end.

The Host

The Host is a thoroughly enjoyable and smartly written film by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho. I saw the previews for this film while visiting America last winter vacation and thought it was some sort of Godzilla update done by South Koreans, but it is much more than that. The universally positive reviews inspired me to seek it out and see if for myself. It is a multi-faceted film with several different genres touched upon. It is a family drama, a comedy, social protest film, and conventional monster movie all rolled into one satisfying experience. The family is comprised of the family patriarch who runs a food stand, his oldest son, the hilariously bumbling Gyung-du (whose wife has run off), who are raising his junior high school aged daughter, Hyun-seo. His younger brother, the unemployed college graduate who self medicates with liquor, and he daughter, who is a competitive archery performer with anxiety issues, all help out with raising Hyun-seo. They band together when Hyun-seo is captured by the creature that was created from an American induced pollution incident. The American also play a role in misdiagnosing the creature as being a host to an infectious disease that causes trouble for the family and results in the use of Agent Yellow as an antidote to the alleged disease. The film is smartly written, and it doesn’t follow the typical monster film conventions, so that the viewer is constantly surprised by the events that unfold. Suffice to say there is no Hollywood ending, but it is satisfying nonetheless.