Lost In Translation

The Man Who Watched Trains Go By

I first became aware of of Georges Simenon from Akira Kurosawa who said that he intended Stray Dog to be a Simenon mystery and actually wrote the screenplay as a novel at first. Paul Theroux is also a big fan-he mentioned reading Simenon, and enjoying his novels, while traveling in his book Ghost Train To The Eastern Star-also he wrote an article, The Existential Hack for The Times. The narrator of Truman Capote's Breakfast At Tiffany's mentioned in one scene that he had a night cap of bourbon and settled down with a Simenon before being roused from bed by Holly Golightly. Anyway, Simenon is somewhat obscure, but respected author who wrote more than nearly two hundred novels. In the foreword Luc Sante states that The Man Who Watched Trains Go By was the 11th book he wrote in 1938. It is a psychological study of a man who feels freed of the constrains of society and decides to do exactly as he pleases which involves assaulting and killing women he wants to bed. He goes on the lam and toys with the police by writing letters to the papers. I suppose it is the modern predecessor of other psychological crime writers like Patrica Highsmith and Jim Thompson. I can say that I was sufficiently intrigued to wan to read some more of his novels in order to form a fuller perspective of his talent.

Springtime In A Small Town

I had heard good things about  Zhuangzhuang Tian's film Springtime In A Small Town. It is a remake of a famous Chinese classic film and was put out by the reliable Palm Pictures (Last Life In The Universe, Millennium Mambo, etc.) on DVD. It was also filmed by esteemed cinematographer Mark Li Ping-bing (In The Mood For Love, Millennium Mambo, etc.). I would have thought that all these elements would have led me to a spectacular viewing experience. But I have to say that I was underwhelmed. Perhaps, the fact that I'm not familiar with the source material takes something away. It is a small drama that seems as if it could have been adapted from the stage due to the small number of characters and simple story line. The drama rest on the chemistry between two characters that had been childhood lovers and, that, did not seem explicit enough to create the dramatic tension the way it should have in my opinion. There was some great cinematography though. If pressed, I'd say give it a miss-it's nonessential viewing.

Beastie Boys-Hot Sauce Committee #2

The Beastie Boys new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part 2, doesn't break any new ground, however it gives us lots of nostalgia. The songs beckon back to the different styles from the previous albums. "Too Many Rappers" features Nas and is one of the standout tracks. "Funky Donkey" is lots of fun. I also like "Say It" and "Nonstop Disco Powerpack." It's nice to see that the Beastie are still around making fun music. 

Bee Thousand

Bee Thousand by Marc Woodworth is yet another informative and authoritative account of a seminal album from the Continuum landmark series 33 1/3. This book focuses on the inception and reception of Guided By Voices' break through and influential lo-fi album. I have to admit I came to this album much later than its release, however I do remember all the great press they got, which put them in the same league as Pavement (a band I was getting into at that time).  So when I finally got around to getting a record I started with 1996's Under the Bushes Under the Stars (it's a bit intimidating getting into such a prolific band, 20 albums between 1987-2004-it's hard to know where to start). Like Wire's Pink Flag and Pavement's Wowee Zowee there are so many short songs with sounds that obliterate lyrics that after giving these short songs a closer listen while reading the book have impressed me more and more upon each listening. I found a greater appreciation for what is going on in the songs that one might miss while listening to the record during everyday activities. The book has a novel structure that alternates between the authorial narrative, band member narratives culled from interviews, listener responses and other odds and ends.

Revisiting The Coen Brothers: The Hudsucker Proxy & No Country For Old Men

I recently re-watched two Coen brothers classics after getting them on DVD. I was interested in watching The Hudsucker Proxy again after a friend suggested that I was rating it too low and now that I have seen more of the older films that inspired the Coens and Raimini when they were writing the screenplay. For example, it has been reported that the Coens told Jennifer Jason Leigh that they wanted her to deliver her dialogue like Rosalind Russell did in her celebrated performance as Hildy Johnson in the classic Howard Hawks film, His Girl Friday.  And even though I can see more of the homage I still think it is somewhat flawed, perhaps not so much for Tim Robbins' performance (as I used to think), but more for the writing. There are some really wide comedy bits that I don't find particularly funny and I'm not a big fan of magic realism/fantasy they resorted to either. It is a well made film and entertaining on several levels, however, I don't see being among their half dozens or so top films.

On the other hand, No Country For Old Men, is one of their best films to date and belongs at the top of their list of great films with those other half dozen or so. I wasn't so sure the first time I saw it, even though I enjoyed it immensely. I think I was too close to the novel at the time, which I read first. Now that I have some perspective and distance from that experience I could appreciate what the Coens brought to the story by fleshing out the details that Cormac McCarthy left unsaid in the novel. I was particularly struck by how great the cinematography was-they really did a great job of capturing the beauty of the West Texas terrain. Secondly, I forgot how much of a suspenseful chase film this is, there is a lot of action driving this compelling story. The three main leads are excellent as are the supporting cast-it is just a really well-made film all around with all kinds of great production values. I can see myself revisiting this film from time to time, because it is so entertaining and well done.

Matsumoto Castle

This is the backside of the castle.

This is the black gate to the castle.

The red bridge over the moat to the castle.

The two towers.

There were some low beams throughout, also several steep steps and climbs.

A wisteria laden view of the castle.

David, Jo, a samurai, and me.

Matsumoto City

This last weekend I went to Matsumoto, Nagano for a conference. It is a small town of around 250,000 people most famous for its 400 year old castle. These traditional building were on the historical Nakamachi dori, which has old ware-house type buildings known as kura.

Notice the ornate shutters on the building on the right.

Most of the traditional buildings were either white or black.

Interesting building sign.

Wisteria hanging on an enclosure near a parking area.

A temple near Nawate street.

This frog statue is at the end of Nawate dori.

A close up of the samurai frog drawing his sword.

A charming old bookshop on the route to Matsumoto castle.

An interesting modern building downtown.

Breakfast At Tiffany's

I was asked to teach a Language and Literature class at Meiji University this year, so I decided that I would find a couple of short novellas and use them as the content for discussion and presentations for each respective semester. I quickly settled on George Orwell's classic political allegory, Animal Farm, and kept searching for a second novel for the Fall semester. I finally settled on a novel I hadn't read yet, Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote, for several reasons: 1) it's only 119 pages 2) the TOEIC level is rated at 470 and above) I figured the students might be familiar with the film and that we could do some sort of activity comparing and contrasting the novella with the film. I know they were quite different from each other from an episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, The Couch, where George joins a book club but can't bring himself to read the novella of Breakfast At Tiffany's because he's too lazy and watches the movie. He later exposes himself as not having read the book at the book club meeting, since they differ greatly.

I've been a fan of Capote's for awhile. I read his novel Other Rooms, Other Voices when I was in my southern gothic phase (reading lots of Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and Carson McCullers). And I've read his non-fiction novel In Cold Blood and enjoyed them both-this novella represents a different phase of his writing style. That being said there are plenty of great sequences from the story and a lot of great writing. I found Breakfast At Tiffany's to be very entertaining and very ahead of its time for the frank depictions of gay characters, straight talk about sex, and the progressive politics of the characters. It also presents New York as a place that people go to reinvent themselves-even in the 40s, which was a bit surprising.

White Material

White Material is the first Claire Denis movie I've seen since her debut, Chocolat (1988), which was a sort of nostalgic love letter to post colonial Africa. This film is more like a nightmare of post colonial Africa. Isabella Hubert stars as a the heir to a coffee plantation (which is owned by her not estranged ex-husband's father) in an unnamed Africa country that is undergoing a civil war. It displaces the whites and brings malevolent violence to anybody who happens to get in the way as feral children take up the cause of the rebel, The Boxer, and head to the streets. Isabella Huppert's Marie feels compelled to stay and save the coffee crop despite her ex-husband's protestations and her son undergoes psychological trauma during the dilemma that sees The Boxer hide out on the plantation, which finds the rebel children gathering there followed by the state militia. Huppert gives an extraordinary performance and the Tindersticks provide a menacing and spooky soundtrack as Denis manages to capture the wild beauty of Cameroon serving as any country in Africa. There are several extras on usual excellent Criterion edition.

Guy Delisle: The Burma Chronicles/Shenzhen

I enjoyed Guy Delisle graphic novel Pyongyang so much that I tracked down his two other Asian themed graphic novels Burma Chronicles and his first Shenzhen. All three books are entertaining in giving insight into the unique cultures of these three different places Delisle lived in at one time or another. His stay in Myanmar was interesting in that he was there with his wife working for Doctors Without Borders with a small son. I have also visited Burma around the time that he was there. I find his drawings charming and his insights and observations entertaining and usually fairly astute. His time in China was like his time in North Korea, since he was working for a company that was doing animation. It is also his first book, so the illustrations are less polished but the observations and humor is still there. I think all of his books are worth perusing and do not involve a large investment of time to enjoy. I suspect that his travel adventures have come to an end, but I hope not I should very much like to read another of his books.