Lost In Translation

Pulphead: Eassys

I first came across the writing of John Jeremiah Sullivan in the pages of GQ magazine, which I occasionally buy from the newsstand. I think three of these feature articles are among the best magazine writing of the last 10-15 years: "Upon This Rock" (which is about a Christian rock concert as seen through the eyes of a former born again Christian), "Getting Down To What Is Really Real" (about an MTV reality star, the Miz, who I am not entirely familiar with), and a fascinating article about Bunny Wailer, "The Last Wailer," which also read like a New Yorker style "Letter From Kingston," giving a devastating glimpse of what life is like in contemporary Jamaica. I think the personal connections and personal voice is one the things that sets Sullivan apart from other feature writers, well, that, and his fluid pose. He can make all sorts of things that I have no interest in palpable: the aforementioned article on a reality TV star, the over exposed Michale Jackson ("Michael"), a down but not out Axl Rose ("The Final Comeback Of Axl Rose"), ancient cave paintings ("Unnamed Caves"), an obscure naturalist named Constatine Samuel Rafinesque from Kentucky ("LA-HWI-NE-SKI: Career Of An Eccentric Naturalist"), obscure blues musicians (Unknown Bards"), and animals on the attack ("Violence Of The Lambs"). That being said when he is engaged in something that is truly meaning full to him AND can draw me into the story he reaches greatness or near greatness: in the aforementioned article on the Christian rock festival that hit close to home, his brother's near-death electrocution ("Feet In Smoke"), his relationship to a Southern legend and mentor ("Mr. Lytle: An Essay"), an update of life in the south following the destruction of hurricane Katrina ("At A Shelter (After Katrina))," sizing up the Tea Partiers ("American Grotesque"), again the aforementioned article on Bunny Wailer, and his experience allowing his house to be used for a TV show ("Peyton's Place"). I will continue to search out Sullivan's writing in the future with hopes that his subjects lean toward less obscure areas, but perhaps, that, is one of the charms of this collection.

The Cockfighter

The Cockfighter (1974) is a film based on the novel by Charles Willeford about cockfighting in the South. I can't imagine this film being made today and the film like the book captured a subculture that was alive but underground. Director Monte Hellman was famous for making a film about another subculture, the hot rodding culture of the late 60s and early 70s in Two-Lane Blacktop in 1971. That film also starred the excellent Warren Oates, who is also well known for Sam Peckinpah films like Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974). It also has turns from Harry Dean Stanton, Ed Begley Jr., and James Earl Jones. It's not as good as the novel, but a competent and entertaining cinematic version for sure.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem: Chronicles From The Holy City (2012) is the latest graphic novel from Guy Delisle, a graphic novelist I have come to greatly appreciate. Delisle is partners with a doctor who participates in Doctors Without Borders, which has led him to live in places like Jerusalem and Rangoon, which he recounts in his graphic novels. Earlier his job as an animator led to stints living in Pyongyang, North Korea and Shenzhen, China which both also got graphic novel treatment. I find Delisle very engaging in his observations of the culture, the day to day life in foreign locals, as well as his interpretations of life there. Jerusalem cannot help but give an analysis of the Jewish settlements and the slow systematic eradication of the Palestine state within Israel where walls, checkpoints, and settlements have disrupted the lives of thousands of Palestinians. Interestingly enough, this has been covered in graphic novel form before by the impressive Joe Sacco. This book is Delisle's longest, most comprehensive graphic novel. Check this link from Slate for a sample of his work.

State Of Fear: The Truth About Terrorism

State Of Fear: The Truth About Terrorism (2005) is a documentary film directed by Pamela Yates about the violence had engulfed Peru for twenty years through the 1980s and 1990s. It is based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Yates uses use personal testimony, history and archival footage to tell the story of the escalating violence of the Shining Path Maoist rebel group that wanted to overthrow the government by violent means. During the reign of Alberto Fujimori democratic institutions were relaxed in the name of fighting terrorism and personal rights suffered as people thought to be sympathizers or members of Shining Path were killed or disappeared in the name of peacemaking. The context in which this film was made warns about the potential dangers of eroding personal rights during the Bush administration following 9/11. A chilling and important film.

Minoringo Curry

I've been menaing to check out Minaringo Curry in Harajku for some time and finally did last weekend. I had to go for the keema curry, which is my favorite. Not exactly Indian, but a good approximation for a Japanese restaurant.

The Heart That Bleeds

I was introduced to Alma Guillemoprieto‘s fascinating book The Heart That Bleeds (1995) by Daniel Alarcon from his list “Ten Powerful Books from the Latin American Canon” in the P.S. section of his novel Lost City Radio. It is a series of dispatches that Guillemoprieto wrote for the New Yorker in the late 80s and early 90s on different situations in several Latin American countries. It is dated in that all of the dispatches are from 1989 to 1993, but she is a compelling storyteller and resourceful reporter that weaves history, and culture into her dispatches that remain worthwhile accounts of Latin America.

Since I am planning to visit Peru this summer I wanted to read up on Peru’s recent history, so I started with the dispatches from Lima in 1990 and 1993 first instead of reading the book in strict chronological order. The dispatch from Lima in 1990 is a fascinating analysis of Mario Vargas Llosa’s loss to upstart second generation Japanese Peruvian Akinori Fujimori in the presidential election. Of course, the men’s fate has changed significantly since then where Llosa won the Nobel Prize for literature and Fujimori is serving a prison sentence. The dispatch from 1993 chronicles Fujimori’s brutal response to the escalating violence by the Shining Path terrorist group and their defeat by capturing their leader Guzman. Later in 1996 MRTA seized the ambassador to Japan’s residence and held the occupants captive for 126 days before Fujimori sent in armed forces on a raid in which the hostages were freed and no MRTA members survived. Then in 2000 Fujimori fled to Japan during a corruption scandal. At the time I wondered why Japan allowed him sanctuary and it seems his handling of the hostage crisis was enough for the Japanese government to offer him sanctuary. In 2005 he was arrested in Chile and extradited to Peru and in 2007 he was convicted of ordering illegal search and seizure and sentenced for 6 years in prison. In 2009 he was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced for 25 years and also for embezzlement and given a 7 1/2 year sentence. 

I chose to read the Panama dispatch from 1992 next since it is the only Latin American country I have visited so far. This dispatch from Panama City was about Bush’s first visit since the US invasion and arrest of Manuel Noriega in 1989 and the instability of the country at that time. It discussed the history of 21 years between Omar Torrijo’s rise and Noriega’s fall. Torrijos did much to further the standard if living in panama by rewriting banking laws so that it resembled Switzerland. He solved the Panama Canal Treaty and reduced unemployment, illiteracy, and child mortality rates. However, he played arbitrarily with press freedoms and citizen’s rights and was indirectly or directly responsible for 90 political deaths. As of 2010, Panama has recovered to become the second most competitive economy in Latin America and has plans to expand the Panama Canal assuring prosperity for years to come.

I was interested to see what Guillemoprieto had to say about Nicaragua as well since I recently read Salman Rushdie’s book about the country, The Jaguar’s Smile. Thus, I read the dispatch from Managua in 1990. This recounts when Daniel Ortega lost the election for the Sandinistas to figurehead Violeta Chamorro (widow of murdered newspaper editor Pedro Joaquin Chamorro). However, Ortega would return to power in 2006 and was recently reelected in 2011 as well. Today Nicaragua still relies heavily on remittances form Nicaraguans living abroad, but has emerged as a location for the emigration of retirees from North America and Europe.

Mexico is on my short list of countries to visit and is the birthplace of the author, so the next sections I read were the two dispatched from Mexico City. The first dispatch from 1990 is a moving chronicle of the connection between garbage pickers and the Mexico’s political machine. The second article from 1992 discusses the importance of Mariachi bands and music to the society and culture of Mexico. There was an economic collapse in 1994 and then 2000 the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) lost its first election in 71 years to Vincente Fox from PAN (National Action Party) and Mexico is widely considered a upper-middle income country today.

Colombia had its share of troubles in the 80s and 90s and therefore gets three dispatches: 1989, 1991, and 1993. The first from Bogotá in 1989 analyzes the rising conflict between drug cartels and the government that supports extradition to the US and resulted in an escalation of bombs murders, and chaos. The next dispatch from Medellin in 1991 discussed the rising violence of drug cartels, young punks fulfilling murder contracts, and neighborhood death squads getting rid of the punks for peace and safety. The last dispatch was from Bogotá in 1993 and analyzed how the end of the “Drug War” approach by the Clinton administration affected Columbia. The infamous Pablo Escobar surrenders and then escapes, and later is killed in a raid. There is a national scandal as one of the country’s most popular soccer players Hiurga is jailed for his part in a kidnapping. Between 2002 and 2006 homicides were halved and kidnappings decreased. It seems that since 2010 the violence in Columbia has decreased significantly increasing tourism to Columbia.

Argentina is one of the Latin countries that I know something about since I read Thomas Martinez’s excellent novel, Peron, in college. This dispatch is from 1991 in Buenos Aires and focuses on the transitional Peronist president, Carlos Menem, who allows a freer press than previous known. And Guillemoprieto fleshes out how this affects the society and culture of contemporary Argentina. She touches on the drug trafficking and corruption that surrounds Menem’s administration and discusses the legacy of the Dirty War, in which 9,000 died or were disappeared-a common fate in Latin America of the 80s and 90s. Menem would serve until 1997 and Argentina has survived a massive economic collapse in the mid 90s, and has a female President in Christina Fernanadez Kircher who was recently reelected to second term in 2011.

After this I read the two dispatched from Rio that discuss the culture and politics of Brazil in 1991 and 1993. These are two of her more interesting dispatches since they both give illuminating reflections of the culture and society of Brazil as well as the politics of that time. The first dispatch investigates the Umbanda Afro religion in Rio and mediates on the recent election of Fernando Collor as President. It is impossible to talk about Brazil without mentioning the poverty, drugs, and violence, but also the beauty and passion of the people. The second dispatch is also reveals a lot about Brazilians by examining the massive popularity of telenovelas and the disconnect between life and fantasy that was exposed in the murder of a TV starlet that stole the headlines from the impeachment of the corrupt Fernando Collor. Today Brazil is one of the fastest growing economies in the world after Lula De Silva was ushered in and provided political stability to the country.

The final dispatch that I read was from La Paz, Bolivia in 1992. It has been politically and economically unstable for some time and has been targeted in the past as having produced as much as 1/3 of the coca fro all the cocaine produced in the 90s. Guillemoprieto focuses on the connections between industries like mining and cocoa farming in relation to politics and Bolivia’s future. 

All in all, a fascinating look back at a region struggling with history and the future.

Showa

Won ton ramen at Showa in Sasazuka. Not bad at all.

Aguirre, The Wrath of God

Aguire, The Wrath of God (1972) begins with an astounding image of a Spanish exploring party descending from the Andes into the jungle that will be their undoing. This party includes Indian slaves, lamas, conquistadors, palanquins, pigs, cannons, and more. It is shocking to me that Werner Herzog was only 28 at the time, had a budget well under $500,000, and used only one camera for the shoot. Klaus Kinski, in his first collaboration with Herzog, is magnificent as Aguirre the megalomaniacal leader of the party’s demise deep in the Amazonian jungle in search of the illusive city of gold, El Dorado. There are many stunning shot throughout the film, which Herzog had filmed on location in Peru. It’s hard not to see that Coppola and Malick borrowed from Herzog in their respective films Apocalypse Now and The New World. Interestingly, I learned from the commentary with the director that the black slave played by Edward Roland named Okello, is named after John Okello a leader of a rebel group that took Zanzibar in 1964 killing between 5,000-20,000 Arabs in the process. It seems that Herzog was in contact with Okello, who wanted him to translate a book that he had written. Aguirre is partly modeled on him. Herzog said, “I chose the name Okello because I owe his craze, his hysteria, his atrocious fantasies quite a bit for this film." It is a fascinating film with many beautiful sequences, perhaps Herzog's masterpiece.

Lost City Radio

I first encountered the writing of Daniel Alarcon in the Dave Eggers edited The Best American Nonrequired Reading series. The stories “City of Clowns” in the 2004 edition and “Second Lives” in the 2011 edition are the writings I read and enjoyed. He was also named one of the top 20 writers under 40 by The New Yorker in 2010. This year I am planning to travel to Peru and when I found out he was Peruvian American, I thought his novel Lost Radio City (2007) might give some insight into the culture. And I suppose it does. But, in an abstract manner since the novel is a dystopian story taking place in an unnamed Latin America country. There are obvious parallels to Peru and its struggles with the rebel Shining Path group and the brutal repressive regime of Fujimori. But there are aspects that are true of any number of Latin America countries where there are conflicts between totalitarian government and radical oppositional groups. The unnamed country resembles Peru in that the large capital city near the ocean and the jungle and mountain communities of the poor and disenfranchised. There’s something in the novel called tadek, which is described as a primitive form of justice carried out in jungle villages after, say, a theft. This is where the village elders choose a young boy, stupefy him with an intoxicating tea, and let him wander the village until he picks out a culprit, then the ‘culprit’ has his or her hands cut off. It turns out, according to Alarcon this practice actually comes from an Anna Kapuscinski book on Ethiopia (The Emperor). Norma is a popular radio host who has a show that tries to track down missing people and reunite them with families and friends. It also turns out that her husband, Rey, is a suspected member of the opposition group IL and missing as well. It was an interesting story told with intermittent flashbacks and a certain amount of grace. But, to be honest I didn’t find the novel as compelling as his short fiction and look forward to reading his collection of short stories, War By Candlelight. I am a big fan of the Harper Perennial P.S. additions to books. This one includes an interview with Alarcon, an article about the book “The Undead” in which Alarcon reveals that he has an uncle who “disappeared” in Peru, and a great list: “Ten Powerful Books from the Latin American Canon.”

Hikarie Shibuya

This last weekend I also visited the new Hikarie building in Shibuya. It has an impressive design and some great mixed use spaces. The view from the highest public floor. The top part of the building consits of private office spaces.