Lost In Translation

Intro to LCD Soundsystems

This interesting multi-media write up about LCD Sound Systems in Slate is quite intriguing I really like the song in question, "All My Friends," but also the cool band checking paen "Losing My Edge." I amy have to get some more of this guy:

Ecstasy is a hell of a drug. Like many pill-shaped thrills, it reminds one that he or she is alive by slowing down the unforgiving march of time into a jumble of eternally pleasurable moments. The effect: a vision of the world that is ultimately unsustainable. It is important to keep this in mind when listening to "All My Friends," the brilliant and deeply nostalgic new single from LCD Soundsystem. While the song bears all the traits of a ubiquitous dance-club hit, this only half-explains its massive popularity. At heart, "All My Friends" is a poignant piece of songwriting designed to resonate with those in the upper limits of the 18-to-34-year-old demographic. It's a song written by a middle-ager that looks back upon the kinds of simple momentary glories it's likely soundtracking this summer: hanging out, joking around, escaping into flings, and dancing on drugs.

As if to underscore the song's wide appeal, the single's late-May release was accompanied by two strong cover versions that reminisce about different times: a New Order-mimicking version by Franz Ferdinand and a jagged, stunningly weary one by John Cale, a founding member of the Velvet Underground. But "All My Friends" is most striking when delivered by James Murphy, the 37-year-old one-man band behind LCD Soundsystem. Murphy is best known for his partnership with Tim Goldsworthy as the heralded DFA (originally Death From Above) production team. The pair's aesthetic compresses about 30 years of parallel traditions—the spastic aggression of punk and postpunk; the glamorous thump of disco and house—into a lean, polished but unclean, posteverything sound. In 2002, they released a brilliant run of singles and remixes for the Rapture, Le Tigre, and Metro Area, among others, and a new republic was born. Murphy and Goldsworthy had somehow collapsed the divide between timid, sedentary indie rock fans and the witless hedonists of too many dance floors. (On this latter count: Even Britney Spears requested a DFA track for one of her albums.)

Interview With Noam Chomsky

Amina Chaudary interviews Chomsky for Isalamica magazine. I can't say that I always agree with Chomsky, but I always find him to be thought-provoking and contoverisal. I'm liberal, but he is a bit too liberal for me with his conspiracy theories, but he usually draws attention to issue that often get over-looked or have been distorted in some manner. Here's some interesting points made in the article:

Amina Chaudary: First, Professor Chomsky, thank you so much for your time. I’d like to begin with a very broad question. Current affairs tend to indicate that a tension between and within religions, some say especially in the case of Islam, lies at the center of many conflicts in the world today. Do you think religion is exerting a greater influence on foreign policy today, both here in the U.S. and abroad? Would you also address what happens when religion merges with politics – and how this is any different than other forms of identity merging with politics, such as ethnicity?

Noam Chomsky: Well the major problems of the world are those that appear in the most powerful states almost by definition, because whatever affects them affects everyone. And the most powerful state in the world by orders of magnitude is the U.S., and it also happens to be one of the most extreme fundamentalist countries in the world. Extremist fundamentalist religion may well have a greater hold in the U.S. on the public than say in Iran, though I’ve never seen a poll in Iran. But I doubt 50 percent of the population thinks the world was created 6,000 years ago exactly the way it is now. This is actually strange because way back in American history to the time of the colonists, there have been eras of religious revivalism. Most recently we see this in the 1950s, which was a big period of religious revivalism. That’s how we get phrases like “In God We Trust” and “One Nation Under God.” Religious revivalism picked up again in recent years. Until recent years, it was not a major force in political affairs. That has happened in the last 25 years and it is now an enormous force – fundamentalist religion, not all religion by any means. So, for example, the U.S. has often been bitterly opposed to Christianity. That painting (points to a picture) is an illustration of the hatred of U.S. leaders for the Catholic Church. It was given to me 15 years ago by a Jesuit priest. It is a painting of the Angel of Death on one side with Archbishop Romero, who was assassinated, and right below are six leading intellectuals who were murdered by an elite U.S.-run battalion. That framed the decade of the 1980s: Romero was assassinated by U.S.-backed forces in 1980, Jesuit priests in 1989 and, in between, the U.S. carried out a major war against the Catholic Church. Many of the victims of (President) Reagan’s efforts in Central America were nuns, lay workers, and for clear and explicit reasons, which you can see officially stated, like the famous School of America, which trains Latin American officers. One of its advertising points is that the U.S. Army helped defeat liberation theology, which was a dominant force, and it was an enemy for the same reason that secular nationalism in the Arab world was an enemy – it was working for the poor. This is the same reason why Hamas and Hezbollah are enemies: they are working for the poor. It doesn’t matter if they are Catholic or Muslim or anything else; that is intolerable. The Church of Latin America had undertaken “the preferential option for the poor.” They committed the crime of going back to the Gospels. The contents of the Gospels are mostly suppressed (in the U.S.); they are a radical pacifist collection of documents. It was turned into the religion of the rich by the Emperor Constantine, who eviscerated its content. If anyone dares to go back to the Gospels, they become the enemy, which is what liberation theology was doing. So it’s a mixed story. However in the U.S., the more extremist, by comparative standards, religious movements did become mobilized into a political force for the first time in history really and that’s pretty much less than 25 years. It’s striking that this is one of the worst periods of economic history for the majority of the population, for whom real wages and incomes have stagnated while work hours increased and benefits declined, and inequality grew to staggering proportions, a dramatic difference from the previous 25 years of very high and egalitarian economic growth and improvement in other measures of human development. There is a correlation, common in other parts of the world as well. When life is not offering expected benefits, people commonly turn to some means of support from religion. Furthermore, there is a lot of cynicism. It was recognized by party managers of both parties (Republicans and Democrats) that if they can throw some red meat to religious fundamentalist constituencies, like say we are against gay rights, they can pick up votes. In fact, maybe a third of the electorate – if you cater to elements of the religious right in ways that the business world, the real constituency, doesn’t care that much about.

Breasts On My Mind

Here's an exerpt from an entertaining and provocative Neomarisme post about celebrity breasts in Japan:

I have been thinking about breasts a lot these days. No, not in a sexual way.

This all started with Hoshino Aki - a horribly annoying ex-young woman who has become a variety TV regular solely because of her enormous breasts. I wrote a whole column for OK Fred on the topic, so I don't want to explicate my tirade here. I can't be so surprised that a no talent, nobody gravia idol had a boob job (the unconvinced can check the not-so-old pictures here and here), but I am royally annoyed that her handlers make such a big deal about her "perfect" breasts and no one bats an eye.

These days, the same thing is happening with the marketing of Fukada Kyoko. In some weird twist of fate, I actually met her back in 1998 via my Kodansha internship. All I remember is that she had terrible skin as a youth, but she has grown out of this in recent years. She also, apparently, grew H-cup-sized breasts while no one was watching. Japanese gossip sites are suddenly required to describe her as "H-cup Fukada Kyoko." In the past, she had just been an actress with an insane addiction to sex. Now she is cup-coded.

Click here to conitnue reading about breasts.

Permanent Records: Luna / Dean Wareham

This week the Onion AV Club has chosen one of my favorite records, Luna's Penthouse as part of their Permanent Record collection:

In the mid-'90s, Quentin Tarantino gave classic film-noir conventions a postmodern spin, finding that the alienation of post-war America connected nicely with the ironic distance of the post-Gulf War generation. On Penthouse, Wareham adopts a noir-inspired persona reminiscent of Elliott Gould's Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye; he's a man out of time, a star-crossed loser who still says stuff (in the opening track, "Chinatown") like "chasing girlies" and "go home earlys," without a trace of irony. While most of Luna's alt-rock peers were cranking up the distortion and Black Sabbath riffs, Luna's musical approach was suitably old-fashioned, with languid, twangy guitars—think "Peter Gunn" on downers—and a fluid, almost jazzy rhythm section scoring Wareham's late-night tales of mystery. Luna was clearly one cool package, though Wareham's canny songwriting keeps Penthouse from being an empty exercise in style. Songs like "Moon Palace" and "Lost In Space" are the musical equivalent of Penthouse's cover—elusive, elegant, lonely, cosmopolitan, and hauntingly pretty.

They chose "Chinatown" as the definitive song on the album, which might be true. But my favorite track is probably "23 Minutes To Brussels." It is an extremely solid record from start to finish without any weak songs.

The brains behind the band, Dean Wareham, might be limited in song style and vocal range, but he makes up for it with his witty, detached and often catchy lyrics. I was devestated to find out the day after they played in Tokyo on their final tour for their last album Rendezvous a couple of years back. However, he has been recording records with bassist Britta Phillips and I recently got a hold of their first effort L'Advventura (released in 2003), and it is as solid as most of his work with Luna. I particularly like his cover of The Silver Jews' "Random Rules" not to mention the heavenly duet with Birtta Phillips on "Night Nurse." It also includes a cover of a Doors song, "Indian Summer" as well as a Madonna cover, "I Deserve It."

Ankor Wat

I was inspired to check out Ankor Wat, a Cambodian restaurant near Yoyogi station, after reading this article in Salon. It was pretty busy for a Saturday night, and it is a bit lacking in ambiance since it seems to be a converted kissaten (old styel Japanese coffee shop) and has been in business since 1982-25 years-wow! However, the food is pretty authentic. The menu is all in Japanese so I’m not sure what the Khmer names for the dishes are, but we started off with fresh spring rolls, which were pretty basic. We also ordered some fried spring rolls that were coated in a kind of paste and had a shrimp on top of minced pork-they were quite tasty, but my dining companion doesn’t eat meat so I had to finish them off. My favorite dish was a fried glass noodle dish with a pepper seasoning with shrimp and crab. I also ordered a spicy beef salad at the waiter’s recommendation. It was very different from a Thai beef salad, the sauce was not unlike the chili paste Korean use in their food. The service was a bit indifferent, but it seems to go hand in hand with the SE Asian theme. It was tasty and reasonably priced, and those are the most important factors in my mind.

Freaks & Geeks

I have to admit that I was spurred to buy the Freaks & Geeks TV series DVD set by the constant references to it in the Onion AV Club posts. It was definately a worthwhile purchase providing several hours of enjoyment, and I haven’t even listened to all the extra commentaries available (I believe there are two for every episode-of which there are 18). It has several cringe-worthy awkward teenager moments, but it also captures the everyday ups and downs of high school life in a more realistic fashion than most TV teen dramas. One of the main reasons, probably ahs something to do with Judd Apatow (The Larry Sanders Show, The 40 Year Old Bachelor, Knocked Up), but credit must also go to the creator Paul Feig who was inspired to make a homage to his high school days. There are some standout performances by people like Linda Cardellini who went onto fame as an ER regular. Other cast members would become Apatow regulars like Seth Rogen (star of Knocked Up), Jason Segel, and Martin Starr.

It is set in 1981 in Michigan and covers some uncharted territory like pot smoking, fake IDs, dungeons and dragons, and other more well worn themes (fist kiss, cheating in school, getting picked on by bullies). However, one of the more inspiring aspect of the series was the music which combines the sublime (The Who, Faces, Joe Jackson, the Cars, etc…) with the dated (Van Halen, Styx, Journey, etc…), but completely appropriate in all cases. I love the scene where Sam asks a girl for a slow dance to Styx’s “Come Sail Away” and it switches from a slow dance to a fast dance just as he gets on the dance floor-absolutely hilarious.

Here’s a recent plug for it by Scott Tobias from the Onion’s AV Club:

Nick plays Styx for Lindsay, Freaks And Geeks, “Boyfriends And Girlfriends.” On his blog What’s Alan Watching?, our favorite TV critic Alan Sepinwall has been beating back these dreary summer months of reruns and reality shows (no offense, Noel, I watch 'em, too) by going through the glorious Freaks And Geeks box episode-by-episode, and inviting readers to play along. (He’s currently on “I’m With The Band,” the sixth episode, so it won’t be that hard to catch up.) Every episode has been an absolute pleasure to revisit; I think it’s one of the best television shows ever and perhaps the very best at melding comedy and drama without the tone going haywire. I'm about halfway through the season now, but there’s a scene in the eighth episode that epitomizes the show’s virtues for me and I’ve watched it over and over again, despite the awful consequence of having a really bad Styx song stuck in my head for several days now.

Haruki Murakami: Jazz Messenger

Here's an excerpt from an essay by novelsi Haruki Murakami on the influence of jazz in his life from the NY Times:

I had my first encounter with jazz in 1964 when I was 15. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers performed in Kobe in January that year, and I got a ticket for a birthday present. This was the first time I really listened to jazz, and it bowled me over. I was thunderstruck. The band was just great: Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone and Art Blakey in the lead with his solid, imaginative drumming. I think it was one of the strongest units in jazz history. I had never heard such amazing music, and I was hooked.

***

Practically everything I know about writing, then, I learned from music. It may sound paradoxical to say so, but if I had not been so obsessed with music, I might not have become a novelist. Even now, almost 30 years later, I continue to learn a great deal about writing from good music. My style is as deeply influenced by Charlie Parker’s repeated freewheeling riffs, say, as by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s elegantly flowing prose. And I still take the quality of continual self-renewal in Miles Davis’s music as a literary model.

Tanabata Time

Yesterday was Tananbata, which celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year. In present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku (短冊 tanzaku), small pieces of paper, and hanging them on bamboo, sometimes with other decorations. The bamboo and decorations are often set afloat on a river or burned after the festival, around midnight or on the next day. This resembles the custom of floating paper ships and candles on rivers during Obon. Many areas in Japan have their own Tanabata customs, which are mostly related to local Obon traditions.

This trree was at a nursery school near my apartment.

Cultural Cartoons: Snoopy vs Doraemon

Kate Elwood discusses the subtle differences between Snoopy and Doraemon in this week's Cultural Conundrums in The Daily Yomiuri:

Doraemon has been aired in many Asian, European and South American countries, but not in the United States. It is common to compare Doraemon to Snoopy, as my former colleague Mr. Iida did, and certainly the two have captured the imaginations and hearts of readers and viewers in their respective countries in much the same way. But when I try to really explain about Doraemon to my American friends, the Snoopy analogy comes up short fast.

Some of the differences are obvious. Doraemon has a seemingly endless supply of contraptions, while Snoopy on the other hand lives a pretty austere life with his dog house, dog-food bowl and typewriter, and the simple props of his occasional imaginative escapades as a World War I flying ace, hockey player, ice skater and so on.

An even bigger difference is Doraemon's loquacious chattiness. Nobita's sidekick has an opinion on everything in the fourth-grader's life and is not shy at all about giving advice, suggestions and warnings. The beagle says nothing, although the reader has access to his views and notions, often wonderful, ironic commentaries on events around him, through thought bubbles.

Doraemon is fully engaged and involved in Nobita's life. He has specifically come to Nobita from the future in order to whip him into shape on behalf of the boy's descendants. Snoopy, however, is not much concerned with Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang, although he does play shortstop on their baseball team. Snoopy is connected to the others but he is still very much his own dog.

In one strip from the mid-1960s, Charlie Brown walks home dejected, saying, "Boy, what a day...This has been the worst day of my life!" In the next frame, he explains, "I woke up this morning looking forward to the spelling bee, and I end up in the principal's office...Good grief!" Next, Charlie Brown observes, "On a day like this, a person really needs his faithful dog running out to greet him..." Yet in the final frame, we see Charlie Brown standing by Snoopy's doghouse. Snoopy faces the other way atop it, thinking, "Here's the World War I pilot in his fighter plane looking for the Red Baron!" as Charlie Brown sighs.

Doraemon would surely have come up with a plan for rescuing the day, even if the stratagem ended up more than slightly askew. Snoopy is a representative of the type of person, or dog, who steps to the sound of a different drummer, as the 19th-century American philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, put it. Doraemon, conversely, embodies an attitude of committed, sometimes exasperated, interrelatedness. We love them both, but for very different reasons.

Gilead

Gilead is Marilynn Robinson’s second novel, written almost 20 years after her first. It got a glowing review from Nick Hornby in his “What I’m Reading” column for The Believer. I have found that we have pretty similar tastes. It was also singled out for a Pulitzer Prize in 2005. I may not have liked it as much as him, but I found a lot to admire. It is a meditation on life, relationships, transgression, sin, redemption, love, spirituality, family, and faith. However, I never felt as though the religion was being forced down the reader’s throat-it is a novel about a pastor so it comes with the territory. His inner life was interesting an d compelling-essentially it is a letter from an elderly pastor to his young son who he will not see grow into a man, thus he wants to make a connection with him by leaving him a record of his thoughts and give out some advice for his life. It’s not the kind of novel that I usually read, but I found it interesting nonetheless. I think Robinson did a good job of making John Ames come alive on the pages of letter to his son.