Lost In Translation

33 1/3: Pink Flag

Wire is a band that I feel I need to get to know better. Back when I was just getting serious about my music, my father brought home an orphaned cassette that he found at work, (the post office) and it was Wire's 1987 album The Ideal Copy. (Incidentally, REM covered "Strange" from Wire's first album Pink Flag on their 1987 album Document). I remember liking Wire, but in those days I was too lazy and cheap to get backlogs of bands I liked (I had a lot of friends dubbing cassette tapes for me). I'm not sure whatever happened to the album, but I recently decided to get Pink Flag partly because of Simon Reynold's canonization of the album in his book Rip It Up And Start Over Again about the post punk movement. However, I have to say that I immediately liked and felt connected to Pink Flag when I heard it. To me, it screamed late 70s punk despite the eclectic array of songs. Wilson Neate's book for Continuum Pink Flag is a great resource. it was painstakingly researched with interviews with band members and devotees that later became musicians-people like Graham Coxson formerly of Blur, Henry Rollins, Steve Albini, and Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices (in fact his devotion to the band has made me decide to read the 33 1/3 book on their album Bee Thousand next due to Wire's influence). Neate profiles each member and gives context and background to the forming of the band and discusses how the band formed and made music prior to making their first album then gave a detailed account of the recording session followed by commentary on the 21 songs (only 35 minutes) individually. Reading Neale's book inspired me to listen to the album in order (Something I rarely do in this shuffle-iPod-era) and it really had an effect on me and made me realize the genius of the opening track "Reuters"(which almost feels like a Joy Division song to me) and hear the importance of the starting and stopping of the songs. The tracks that stood out immediately were "Ex Lion Tamer" (with it's great guitar riff and song-response dynamic)  and "Three Girl Rumba" with it's infectious funky bass line. "Strange" was also standout (even though REM's version sounds nothing like it) along with A Feeling Called Love" and "Mannequin." It made sense that their big punk "hit" was "1 2 X U." This book is just another example of the high quality of writing going on in the series. I have to say that this album has become one of my favorite of all time in a very short time. How could I have over-looked it for so long?

For The Sake Of Argument

Actually I got Christopher Hitchen's book of essays, For The Sake Of Argument, as a primer of his various positions (political and cultural) before reading his autobiography Hitch-22. However, I only read about a third of the essays before reading his memoir and then put it down for a while. So I recently picked it back up and finished the essays. Dare I say I enjoyed much of it and was influenced by his opinions in several areas.

Most of these essays appeared previously in publications like The Nation, The London Review of Books, and Times Literary Supplement among others. It shouldn't be surprising that his politics are pretty consistent with what he discussed in his memoirs and he is well versed in contemporary/modern world affairs which is mostly covered in the sections "The Power and the Glory" and "The Cunning of History." I think it's fair to say that he lands on the right side most of the time. I find him less accurate when dealing with American politics in "Studies in Demoralization." I will never completely understand his contempt for Clinton and his soft spot for Bush Jr.-well the fact that Hitchens pushed for the war with Iraq says it all really. He doesn't give Clinton much credit for anything, even his intervention in Bosnia. I have little interest/knowledge of British politics thus I found myself skimming through the section on British politics, "No Class: Toryism Today." I guess I know more about the royal family despite my contempt for them and therefore found the section on the royals, "Coach Into Pumpkin," entertaining. There is a section of his take downs, "Rogues Gallery," that had me siding with him about Mother Teresa and wanting to read his book on Henry Kissinger, The Trial Of Henry Kissinger. He has also alerted me to another conservative intellectual to avoid-Paul Johnson-who I haven't read yet and won't thanks to Hitchens. I also enjoyed his section on culture, "Critical Resources." There's an impressive defense of Salman Rushdie. And I found his essays on the artist Goya and British writer Kazuao Ishiguro particularly well crafted. There's a great bit in the essay about Ishiguro where he compares England and Japan:

Both nations have an ingrained, antique response to caste, class and station. Both are island peoples, at a an angle to the nearest continental landmass. Both are former imperial powers who held dominion over populations that far outnumbered them. And both are maritime; people forget that the Anglo-Japanese naval treaty of 1902 was an agreement between effective superpowers.

Some other observations include, the undercurrents of atheism, which would become his calling card in recent years. For example, the conclusion to his essay on Graham Greene reads: "Take away the cloying sanctimony, and thank God that on so many occasions Greene has shown that he can write like an atheist." I was won over by his praise of Evelyn Waugh, of whom I have read a few novels, and look forward to reading more of him as well as embarking on the work of P.G. Wodehouse as well.

Branded To Kill

Seijun Suzuki's film Branded To Kill is an influential film to many film makers. I suppose the fact that Criterion chose to release a version of the film gives it a certain amount of credence, however, I was drawn to the film because Wong Kar-wai cited it as an influence for his film Fallen Angels. Previously, I have seen another film with Jo Nishida in the lead that was ahead of its time thematically and visually as well: Gate of Flesh. It seems that Suzuki is a favorite of Jim Jarmusch and this film was also an inspiration for his film Ghost Dog. Some of his other contemporary admirers are  Chan Wook-Park (Old Boy from the Vengeance trilogy), John Woo (The Killer and Hardboiled), and Quentin Tarantino. The film is an unconventional take on a studio generated B genre film and resulted with Suzuki being fired for his experimental take on the film that helped create a sort of Japanese film noir in the confusing story of a hit man who becomes the target after botching a job. The film stars frequent Suzuki collaborator Jo Nishida as the protagonist and No. 3 killer and Koji Nanbara as the mysterious Number One Killer. The film has been cited for its daring visual style reflected in the unconventional framing of shots, lighting, visual images as well as surrealist jumps in time through editing. I'm looking forward to seeing his other lauded films like Tokyo Drifter, Story of a Prostitute, and Fighting Elegy.

The Killing

AMC has another interesting crime show in its line up, The Killing. It is the story of a mysterious murder of a young high school girl who was found in the trunk of a local politician's campaign car trunk. The music, aspects of the story, and the Pacific Northwest location (Vancouver standing in for Seattle with several Seattle establishing shots mixed in) draw to mind comparisons with David Lynch's noir-ish Twin Peaks. However, it is adapted from a Swedish crime series, which sounds fascinating in its own right. Here is an interesting interview with the show's crator Veena Sud.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet by master stylist David Mitchell is undoubtedly one of the best novels of 2010 and a crowning achievement. I am sure any reader who is familiar with Mitchell and books like Cloud Atlas or Black Swan Green can attest to his incredible talent stylistically and in storytelling. This novel is a product of extensive research into the 18th century Dutch trading post Dejima near Nagasaki Japan during the time of foreigner exclusion and limited contact with main land Japan. The details make the story come to life, but Mitchell has also created a compelling narrative plot with a secret evil religious sect, corrupt trading practices, forbidden love, and an international incident by a foreign power looking to expand trading in the orient. The compelling story is supported by telling details of what life was like for the Dutch trading with Japan in the late 18th century, but the characters are expertly rendered with distinct personality traits and speech patterns. The story mostly concerns Jacob DeZoet who travels east to Japan to make his fortune so that he can marry back in Holland, but things don't go according to plan. While he is in Dejima he falls in love with a Japanese midwife named Orito, and he becomes involved in several incidents and calamities that result in an extended stay on the island. Then again this is not a conventional love story either, however, without giving away too many details about the plot, I am suffice to say that it is an epic story of considerable enjoyment.

Update: I was asked by a friend to explain why I like this novel more than his earlier ones and I was inspired to write a lengthy response, which might clarify my thoughts on this novel:

I think it is a combination of stylistically creating a satisfying narrative that made me feels as though I were going back in time and entering another time period. To me the novel is epic in its scope and myriad of characters and depictions of late 18^th century Dutch trading practices and life in Japan.

I think BLACK SWAN GREEN is the second most satisfying novel since he has captured the voice of an adolescent. It was an extremely enjoyable and satisfying novel, but not as impressive as THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS because Mitchell is essentially recreating his own adolescent not matter how convincingly and entertainingly-it is still a coming of age novel. It is has been done before, and I will say he does this genre well, but it isn’t the same accomplishment of recreating life from more than 200 years ago among the Dutch and Japanese not English. (I included it in my list of my favorite books from the 00s on my blog).  Here’s the link to my review from 2006 and I basically still agree:

http://patrickmccoy.typepad.com/lost_in_translation/2006/10/black_swan_gree.html

My problem with CLOUD ATLAS is mainly due to the Sci-Fi story embedded in the novel, which I found juvenile and boring. I Believe I skimmed through those parts, but found the other sections absolutely fascinating and a tribute to his ability to mimic nearly any style of writing convincingly, but I felt that he still hadn’t truly found his own writer-ly voice. This is from my blog post in 2005-follwed by the link:

I particularly liked “The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing”-which probably owes something to Melville, and “Letter From Zedelghem”-which reminded me of the Dangerous Liaisons although it took place much later in time. There were merits to the “The First Luis Rey Mystery” and “The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish,” as well. But I was turned off by the lengthy foray into SF in the middle section, I slowed down considerably while reading “An Orison of Sonmi 451”and “Sloosha’s Corossin’ an’ Ev’thin’ After.” The former was a dystopian story of the near future, which has precedents with Huxley and Orwell. It’s been done, and it’s been done better. I see Mitchell trying to channel Gibson here, or at least I guess that’s his influence. I must give him credit for setting it in Korea instead of Japan, despite his having lived here for a long time-but that would have been too cliché. The later is a sort of post-apocalyptic survival farce. To be honest, my interest was really flagging here, which is too bad, because I really enjoyed the first two sections.

http://patrickmccoy.typepad.com/lost_in_translation/books/page/40/

NUMBR9DREAM in my mind is homage to Murakami. It is an excellent mimicry, but it also includes the elements that I find tiresome and trite-the fantasy and SF sections. (I guess those just aren’t my cup of tea), here are my critiques of this book from 2003 followed by the blog link:

There are elements of fantasy and science fiction, however, I can't see how they move the story along or add to it. I find it something that I usually overlooked in Murakami's work, because of all the other great qualities his novels possess. Early in the novel, the main character Eiji has several sci-fi fantasy sequences that d little other than introduce some characters and make you wonder what kind of book you've gotten yourself into. Later, there is a sequence where Eiji is hiding out reading fantastical stories by the occupant of the safe house, which almost seems like filler, and to be honest I skimmed most of those stories. And instead of naming his novel after a Beatles song like Murakami, "Norwegian Wood", he has named it after a John Lennon song, "number9dream."

Furthermore, I had trouble getting around the English slang. I know he was making an approximation of how Japanese in meaning and tone would sound in English. And he has had success with an idea that I've had as well, which is to write a typical literary story, but set it in Japan in order to distinguish it from the hundreds of other literary novels. And to Mitchell’s credit, he has had a lot of success in doing so.

http://patrickmccoy.typepad.com/lost_in_translation/2003/08/number9dream.html

My first paid piece of journalism was a review of GHOSTWRITTEN for The Daily Mainichi News in 1999 or 2000 (I don’t have a clipping!). I basically said that he had enormous talent and produced a very ambitious first novel, but was too derivative in his plots (heist capers and end of the world scenarios) and styles (Murakami and Hornby).

So I’m happy to see how far he has come over the years. I feel kinship with him as he started out in Japan and made it big. Maybe someday I will write that novel kicking around in my head.

Millennium Mambo

Millennium Mambo is Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hisen's 2001 award winning film about the Taipei nightlife. The story is framed as a sort of flashback memory by Vicky from 2011, 10 years after the events that transpire on the screen. It stars the stunning Qi Shu as Vicky, a party girl, in an on and off again relationship with Hao-Hao, a petty junky and thief who is obsessive and simultaneously dismissive of her and may have been partly responsible for pulling her down into their nonproductive listless existence. When she leaves Hou-Hou she often finds herself with a gangster named Jack, that she has met at her onetime job as a hostess at a bar. It seems that some critics of the film find that the main characters are not worthy of the attention of the film since there is no epiphany or instructive cautionary tale embedded in the film. The pacing might be considered slow by some, but I find it deliberate and artistic. However, the Qi Shu eats the camera and looks great just smoking cigarettes or jogging to techno music like she does at the beginning of the film. There are some other great cinematic scenes like the ones where she goes to snow covered Yubari, Sapporro to visit a couple of Japanese-Taiwanese brothers she met a club in Taipei. (Incidentally the location of a major film festival that I was unaware of). The cinematographer is the talented Ping Bin Lee, who also worked with Wong Kar-wai on In The Mood For Love. (It makes me want to seek out another well-regarded film in which he serves as cinematographer, Springtime in a Small Town, among others) Later, Jack asks her to come to Japan where he is taking care of some gangster business. She goes to Tokyo to meet him, but he never reappears. Overall, I thought it was an artistic depiction of a lost generation and makes me want to seek out other tittles by Hou Hisao-hisen.

Tonoharu Part One & Two

The above is a panel from Lars Martinson's latest graphic novel Tonoharu Part Two, which I recently read along with Part One. I think you can see by the artwork in the panel above that Martinson employs a skillful attention to detail of each panel. Aside from the great artwork I am personally engaged by the storyline, which I admit might not be of interest to everyone. It is the story of Dan Wells working as an Assistant Language Teacher in a fictional small rural town in Fukuoka-ken ala the JET Program, which I spent two years teaching on in Koshigaya, Saitama from 1997-1999. And although Koshigaya is a city of more than 200,000 people, with more than 10 other JETS, about 30 minutes from Ueno in Tokyo, many of the experiences Martinson writes and draws about are familiar to me.  The sense of alienation and loneliness causes by cultural dislocation and and inability to speak the language in the pre-internet days was particularly relevant. I was particularly sympathetic to the depiction of the 50 minute multiple self-introductions that Dan had to give at his school. I remember at one school I gave 17 self introduction lessons-I was so sick of myself after that. Some of the other experiences may not have been relevant personally  to me, such as the affair that Dan Wells has with the English teacher at the school, but as such are familiar experiences and true to life. I have since learned that Martinson has a prologue to the series entitled Young Men of a Certain Mind and has planned a Part Three, Appendices, and an Epilogue-which I eagerly await.

Libre

It's difficult to find good Tex-Mex in Japan, so it's always good to see new places sprouting up in the city. Libre, a San Franciso style burrito joint, has sprung up in a prefab building (along with a fried chicken place and kimchee place) on Omotesando dori. We went on a cold rainy night, but when the weather warms up it is a nice place to stop for some good Tex-Mex. It is take out only and there is seating in front and open air seating on the roof, which will be nice when the weather warms up. The burritos follow the "Chipolte/Frilotes" style and come in two sizes. I also had some nachos and a quesadilla-let's just say stick with the burritos. Margaritas and Coronas also available.

High Plains Drifter

During this spring vacation I have been watching several classic westerns including the Dollars trilogy. It was suggested that many consider High Plains Drifter the fourth installment of the series with Clint Eastwood starring and directing, so I was curious to see what it was all about. The Beastie Boys have  a great song with the same title from Paul's Boutique that is homage to the spirit of film. I have to say that I don't think it was of the same quality of the Leone Dollar films. There were some memorable scenes and performances in the film, but overall I thought it was a bit overstated (i.e. both women are easily seduced by the stranger) and obvious (i.e. painting the town red). There's still a few well-regarded westerns on my list to see, because I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of westerns, thus the gap in knowledge of westerns, but people like John Ford are so well regarded by film lovers that I feel it is necessary to see them and draw my own conclusions.

Shinjuku Gyoen

I met some friends in Shinjuku Gyoen on Sunday-here the Docomo building looms in the background.

I've been to the park for hanami in the past, but I took a bit of a walk and realized that it was a much bigger park than I realized.

I didn't realize there were ponds and a stream before.

This is the view from the Chinese tea house on the grounds.

The Chinese tea house.

This varietal of cherry blossom was still in bloom.