Lost In Translation

Andrew Bird-Nobel Beast

I haven’t been listening to many new albums, but I have to say that Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast must surely be among the best new albums of 2009.  Apparently he has been around for a while churning out several different genre albums-he’s a violinist by training, but he has established an impressive singer/songwriter presence on this album. The standout tracks for me include: “Oh No,” “Fitz & Dizzy Spells,” “Nomenclature,” “Not A Robot, But A Ghost,”  “Souverian,” and “Natural Disaster.”

Polite Lies

I stumbled upon Kyoko Mori’s memoir/essay collection Polite Lies. I was curious about what observations she had to make about being a woman who was raised in Japan and grew into adulthood in the American Midwest. She discusses different aspects of the two cultures and her experiences in different chapters under headings like: Language, Family, Secrets, rituals, a Woman’s Place, bodies, Symbols, School, Tears, Lies, Safety, and Home. Some of the observations seem like broad generalizations and others seem to be heavily influenced by very unhappy childhood where her mother committed suicide when she was just a girl and had to endure an abusive and unloving father who may have been a sociopath. It is a very sad story and a very personal story, but it colors her perceptions very much. However, her criticism has some common critiques of the two cultures. She finds the Japanese language vague and constrictive-a common complaint of the rigid social structure of the society where everybody belongs but no one is allowed to be himself or herself. She finds well-meaning Americans intrusive. An interesting personal look at the two cultures, but not a great overview.

Beer and Gyoza

A winning combination at a local ramen shop. 

The New Cult Canon: Brick

It seems that  Brick is one of those films that you either love or hate-I would fall into the "love" but not passionately, more along the lines of "like" it like a brother:

In lesser hands, this could have happened to Brick, Rian Johnson’s risky attempt to bring the hard-boiled language and plotting of post-war detective fiction to a contemporary high-school setting. The obvious pitfall would be the embarrassing spectacle of junior Humphrey Bogarts and Veronica Lakes acting like grown-ups; noir relies on a measure of world-weary cynicism, and even a generation as naturally sarcastic as the younger set might have trouble suggesting that seen-it-all wisdom—or smoking a cigarette properly, for that matter. The other, related pitfall is taking the gimmick too far and letting the movie-movie artifice overwhelm any authentic emotions or original ideas; go too heavy with the homage, and you’ve got a smart-alecky curiosity, not a movie. 

Johnson threads the needle a hundred different ways, but before getting into all the little things he gets right, here’s how the concept pays off: The common denominator between crime fiction and high school is a mood of heightened emotion obscured by a thin veneer of cool. There’s never a time in a person’s life where they feel things more intensely than in high school, nor is there a time when they labor as hard to keep those feelings under wraps. By evoking the stylized, rat-a-tat dialogue of vintage Dashiell Hammett detective novels—with words like “yeggs” (guys), “heel” (walk away), “jake” (drugs), “shamus” (detective), et al.—Johnson finds a new way to suggest teenagers’ capacity for couching their real problems in language. He also raises the stakes: Crime fiction deals with matters of life and death, and if that isn’t literally true of adolescence, it certainly feels that way to those on the inside. So by introducing a dead body into the equation, Johnson provides an incident that justifies that level of intensity.  

Our Story Begins

Tobias Wolff is one of the finest short story writers alive today and I was eagerly awaiting his latest collection Our Story Begins. I was a little disappointed to see that it was “new and selected stories”-mostly selected stories. But it turns out that he has re-edited the selected stories and there were several from the one collection I have yet to read: In The Garden of North American Martyrs. This includes the excellent title story, which was the first Wolff story I ever read in an anthology of contemporary short story writers in a creative writing class in college. The other stories were: “Next Door,” “Hunter in the Snow” (in which the setting is my hometown of Spokane, Washington), and “The Liar.” I also forgot how many Spoakne/Washignton state references were in his stories, especially those from Back In The World: “Soldier’s Joy,” “The Rich Brother,” “Leviathan,” “Desert Breakdown, 1968,” and “Say Yes.”  The new stories show how he has progressed and have varieties of themes and points of view. I think this would be an excellent introduction into the world of Tobias Wolff.

Kohinoor

One of the great things about Tokyo is that you can get great authentic food from places like India. This is a chicken curry lunch set special at Kohinoor in Meidaimae. not my favorite Indian place but pretty tasty and near school-actually not even my favorite curry-which is Keema curry.

Frost/Nixon

Films that are based on plays need to walk a fine line between cinematic success and theatric exposition recorded on film. David Mamet’s extraordinary Glen Gary Glenn Ross is an example of a successful play adaptation, and on a smaller scale I think the same can be said of the adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play Frost/Nixon.  It isn’t really the story of Nixon, but of the little know underdog British reporter who landed one of the most sought after interviews of all-time, the first with Nixon after his resignation. There’s plenty of drama as Frost tries to gain respectability and line up sponsors to pay the outrageous fee.  Frank Langella avoided caricature in his nuanced turn at Nixon. I thought relatively unknown Michael Sheen was charming and smarmy as you suspect Frost was. I think Rebecca Hall is an up-and-comer; she was one of the best things about the over-rated VickyChristinaBarcelona. I was pulled in by the historical content and the drama of the situation, Sheen had to make his character sympathetic and I think he succeeded. Great supporting cast as well with Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, and several more.

Troubling Masculinity in Japan

The first article from The Japan Times refers to a new breed of so-called men in Japan:

Every society has its own terminology for a young generation regarded as odd or unfathomable, and marketers are quick to give them catchy labels. It's no exception in Japan, which is now abuzz with talk of men with a soft spot who are becoming known as soshokukei, meaning "herbivorous" or "herbivores."

The word soshokukei, coined by a writer named Maki Fukasawa in 2007, has been widely picked up in the media in the last six months or so, owing in part to Megumi Ushikubo, president of the Tokyo market-research firm Infinity, and author of "Soshokukei Danshi Ojo-man Ga Nippon wo Kaeru (The Herbivorous Ladylike Men Are Changing Japan)," which was published in November 2008. Through interviews with around 100 men in their mid 20s and early 30s in Tokyo and other major cities, Ushikubo concluded that the soshokukei boys have a combination of the following characteristics:

• They are not as competitively minded about their jobs as men in older generations.

• They are fashion conscious and eat sparingly so they can stay thin and fit into skintight clothes.

• They are chummy with their moms and often go shopping together.

• They are not interested in dating girls, having relationships, or even having sex (choosing from a plethora of "self-help" toys instead).

• They are very tight with their money and often carry several retailers' "point cards" around, declaring that those who don't pinch pennies are stupid.

Ushikubo has even gone so far as giving these types a new label: ojo-man (ladylike men).

The second article also from The Japan Times reports that some men are wearing bras because they are relaxing!?:

Underwear-maker Masayuki Tsuchiya says he had toyed with the idea of making bras for men for about seven years, but there was always one sticking point: What function could they possibly perform?

Double whammy: A model shows off one of lingerie-maker WishRoom's best-selling men's bras. WISHROOM

"Women's bras make breasts look larger or stop them from sagging," the entrepreneur explained. For men's bras to succeed, he reasoned, surely they too would need some clear purpose.

Early last year the answer occurred to him. The few male customers who had called his Tokyo-based company, WishRoom, inquiring about bras did not seem interested in making their pectoral muscles look bigger, or improving their posture. "They said wearing a bra just made them feel more calm, relaxed and revived," Tsuchiya said. From a man's perspective, it turned out, the sole and sufficient purpose of a bra was psychological.

The Lighthouse

I recently made a return visit to my friend Duncan and his sister Fleur's euro pub, The Lighthouse, the site of my 40th birthday party. It's located on the South side of Kokubunji station. At the time they were still inthe process of fixing it up, but as you can see they have it all sussed out complete with a large number of Belgian bottle imports and several European beers on tap as well as a variety of good eats on the food menu. The model below is a diorama built by Duncan's father on the bar.

Retribution

Last year I came across Max Hastings’ book Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 in the NY Times Notable Books of 2008. I finally got around to reading it and it was a very well written and researched book. It is a comprehensive look at the final years of the Pacific Theater of war. I like the fact that he cites many sources including those culled from primary sources like journals, letters and interviews from the Axis and Allies sides. It is stylistically compelling since it was written by a former journalist, which means it has a great narrative thread.  There are several interesting chapters that describe lesser-known aspects of the war: Chapter 3-The British In Burma, Chapter 14 Australians: “Bludging” and “Mopping Up,” Chapter 17: Mao’s War, and Chapter 20: Manchuria: The Bear’s Claws. He adds extensive analysis of the decisions about tactics that seem wrong headed and theorizes that the brutal acts and stubbornness of the Japanese led to the use of the atomic bombs to bring the war to a close.