Lost In Translation

Chimi

I've found another viable lunch option in Nakano at Chimi which servers Korean food and I got the Kimchi Chige lunch set on a cold winter day for ¥850.

Rebecca

I've been meaning to see Alfred Hitchcok's American debut Rebecca (1940) for some time, and felt the time was right after hearing that its star Joan Fontain died earlier this week. The film is based on the gothic novel of the same name by Daphne Du Marier. it also stars Laurence Olivier. Hitchcock is purported to have said that it is not a Hitcock film due to the interference of David O. Selznic, but many critics have pointed out that this thriller maybe the start of his intimate psychological portraits of characters. All the major leads were nominated for best acting performances and it won best picture at the Academy Awards.

Craft Beer In Japan

Craft Beer In Japan by Mark Meli is an excellent introduction to the world of craft beer that is really taking off in Japan at the moment-so the timing for the book is excellent. After the preface in which he talks about his background and how he first got interested in craft beers, there is a section of Introductory essays. These essay are as follows: 1. A Brief History of Beer in Japan 2. Ji-biru Style 3. Ji-biru and Japanese Cultural Identity 4. The Economics of Beer in Japan 5. Japanese 6. Beer and the Japanese Language 7. Best-of-Lists 8. Ji-biru Festivals.I agree with him on several of his picks for best of beers like Shiga Kogen and Baird. This is followed by a Japanese Craft Brewery Guide, Japan's Major Breweries, and Ji-biru Places. I think he could have included more photos in the Brewery Guide and Ji-biru Places. I think he did a pretty good job on Ji-biru places, but left out some in the Kanto area that I am pretty sure were there before he published. Then again he is not based in Kanto, so that can be forgiven. But I mostly bought this book to learn about places to go when outside Kanto and breweries that I haven't heard of before. Just before this book came out I was at the Watering Hole in Shinjuku and discovered the wonderful beers from Aqula of Akita for the first time, one of Meli's favorites. It is the best guide available, but not without a few minor flaws-I think it's worth the purchase for aficionados.

Frances Ha

Director Noah Baumbach has long been a favorite of mine and he's back with another witty, funny comedy starring Greta Gerwig as Francis Ha (2013). The film was shot digitally and then turned to black and white. It is sort of an homage to the French New Wave in music, film style,  and content I suppose. But it is also a kind of a coming of age comedy and also a love story of sorts between a heterosexual girl and her best friend...hence the comedy. It encapsulates a world unknown to me; that of 20 somethings in Manhattan and as the TV series Girls attests you must be a trust fund kid in order to survive in New York today. In fact, Girls regular Adam Driver plays the Jean Paul Belamando hat wear rich kid Lev. It is largely about the struggles of growing up and finding a place in the world. All in all, it was highly entertaining and ends on a high note. The Criterion extras include: a conversation between filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and Baumbach, a conversation between actor and filmmaker Sarah Polley and the film's cowriter and star, Greta Gerwig, a conversation about the look of Frances Ha between Baumbach, director of photography Sam Levy, and Pascal Dangin, who did the film's color mastering, the trailer, and a booklet featuring an essay by playwright Annie Baker.

2013 Top Albums

It's always enjoyable to look back on the year and evaluate the new media one has come across. In searching out the best new music of 2013 I had to get some new music to evaluate and this is what I came up with:

    1. Neko Case-The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love  You

    2. Elvis Costello and The Roots-WIse Up Ghost

    3. The National-Trouble Will Find Me

    4. Daft Punk-Random Access Memories

    5. Yo La Tengo-Fade

    6. Vampire Weekend-Modern Vampires of the City

    7. Okkerville River-Silver Gymnasium

    8. Superchunk-I Hate Music

    9. My Bloody Valentine-mbv

    10. Arcade Fire-Reflektor

Honorable Mention: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds-Push Away The Sky Away

Mainstream Films: The World's End & Pacific Rim

Edgar Wright films can be hit or miss for me, but when they are hits, they really hit the spot: Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz for example. The World's End (2013), the third and final film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, belongs in the company of the hits. I am notoriously hard on comedies, but this one gets it right. It was very clever and fun to watch. There are some good bits of physical comedy as well. I found the Birtpop music nostalgic. All in all, it was thoroughly entertaining.

I not much of an SF or action film fan either, but I was intrigued by Pacific Rim (2013), mostly because it was directed by fan boy director Guillermro del Toro who has created such inventive worlds in films like Pan's Labyrinth and the Hell Boy movies. While it is by no means a masterpiece, it was more entertaining than I thought it would be for what is basically giant robots fighting monsters.

Hayashiya

Meat sauce spaghetti, an old staple. Here at Hayashiya in Nakano you can get pasta 300g or 400g upgrade for free. I went with the 300g upgrade.

The White Ribbon

The White Ribbon (2009) directed by Michael Haneke is the black and white winner of the Palm d'Or at the cannes film festival. it is an extraordinary look at young love and malevolence in a small German village in the early 20th century. It is narrated by the village's young school teacher (Ernest Jacobi), played as a young man by Christian Friedel. He recounts the strange occurrences that took place the year he met and fell in love with this eventual wife Eva (Leone Benesh). Throughout the film there are glimpses of fissure among the villagers where everything is not what it seems, from the puritanical pastor's strict upbringing of his children (whom he forces to wear white ribbons to remind them of their purity and piety) to the suspect relationship between the doctor and his teenage daughter not to mention the heartless way he treats his midwife and former lover. It is a haunting and mysterious film that ends on an ambiguous note.

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: The Songs of John Prine

Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine (2010) is one of those tribute albums that appeals to me on two levels: the artist being covered and the tribute artists. I had a friend who was trying to get me into John Prine, but this works much better since there are several artists who I like and several that I am curious about, and  that adds to the appeal of an album like this. First the artists I already like all come through with worthwhile versions: The Avett Brothers "Spanish Pipedream," My Morning Jacket "All The Best," Justine Vernon (Bon Iver) "Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)," Conor Oberst and the Hidden Valley Band, and "Daddy's Little Pumpkin" by Driveby Truckers. The best of the bands unfamiliar to me were: Lambchop "Six O'Clock News," Old Crow Medicine Show "Angel From Montgomery," and Deer Tick (with Liz Isenberg) "Unwed Fathers." But I don't think there's a weak song on the album with tracks from other like: Josh Ritter, Justin Townes Earl, Sara Watkins, and Those Darlins. So this album inspires me to seek out more by contributors and the artist in which they are paying tribute, because Prine is clearly a gifted songwriter. 

The Shark-Infested Custard

 

The Shark Infested-Custard (1996) by Charles Willeford is supposedly one of his own personal favorites. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't rank it among my favorites though. There's plenty to like with his divergences into subjects like psychology, singles apartments, luxury flatware, pharmaceuticals among other subjects. it si a set of four interlocking stories involving four men who have become friends living in a singles' apartment complex in Miami in the 70s. Each story is told in a distinctive voice from each cahracter's point of view:  Hank, a pharmaceutical salesman, Larry ,a private security operative, Eddie, an airline pilot and Don, the unhappily married middleman for a luxury silverware firm. This isn't a crime story per se, but there are criminal events that take place in the four narratives as Willeford goes on about sumptuous meals and pantsuits all the while these events take place. It ends abruptly with a sudden unforeseen plot twist. This is not his best, but it is entertaining as always.