Lost In Translation

My Summer Of Love

I was unaware of the early Pawel Palikowski (he directed the excellent Ida) summer coming of age film, My Summer Of Love (2004). It is the story, based on a novel, of two girls from different soci-economic backgrounds, the rough and tumble Mona (Nathalie Press) and the posh Tamsin (a very young Emily Blunt), who meet and fall in love over a summer. There's a subplot involving Mona's newly religious brother and guardian Phil (Paddy Consindine). Palikowski is exhibiting a cinematic feel to this coming of age film that he would demonstrate so strongly in Ida.

Eichigo Yuzawa, Niigata

So I was planning on visiting Sado Island in Niigata prefecture (one of the last 12 prefecture I haven't visited)but when I arrived in the city of Niigata there was massive torrential rain. I stopped by the tourism office and asked about ferries to Sado and they advised against it. I had lunch and deiced to go back to Eichigo Yuzawa  which I noticed wasn't raining when I passed by and is known for the mountains nearby-it's a major ski resort. The dog statue is in Niigata station.

Torrential rain.

Deep fried fish with curry rice was the service lunch in the station.

There's a famous nihonshu tasting room in Echigo Nuzawa station, Ponshukan, ¥500 gets you 5 tokens to use on tasting sake, from 1 to 3 for each-more than 100. This town is famous for the massive amounts of snow that acumulates during the winter so it is an onsen (hot springs)  town and a ski resort town, the famous Nobel Prize winning author Yasunari Kawabata set one of his most famous novels here, Snow Country.

100s of sake choices.

Matsue from Snow Country in the station.

The Yuzawa Museum entrance.

The Snow Room.

Matsue's room.

Echigo Beer-from Japan's first micro-brewery.

Dinner at Yuzawa Kamakura.

Sake and otoshi-table charge food.

Fresh sashimi.

More nihonshu.

Typical ryokan breakfast-mine was a very inexpensive hotel with a sento near the station, but it was a good breakfast.

Mondo Park.

This stone inscription is a memorial to Kawabata's Snow Country. There was a more extensive literary walk that I would have done if the weather was more cooperative. There wasn't any of the torrential rain that I saw in Niigata city, but it did rain most of the evening and the morning was drizzly.

33 1/3: Pyschocandy

Pyschocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain was a seminal record from my youth and a classic, so I was looking forward to reading the 33 1/3 Pyschocandy (2016) book by Paula Mejia. While it provides some interesting background about the making of the record I would have like more discussion of the origins of the songs and a track by track discussion other than the rambling narrative that was presented in this book. Perhaps, also a bit too much biographical information from the author. Nonetheless, one of the great records of the 80s that still sounds contemporary today.

Woman Of The Year

Woman Of The Year (1942) is the first pairing of Katherine Hepburn with Spencer Tracy in a screwball comedy directed by George Stevens. It's the story of two newspaper reporters who deiced to get married and find they have trouble getting along together. The screenplay won an Academy Award and Hepburn was nominated for her performance. The Criterion treatment includes: new high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack, new interview with George Stevens Jr., the director’s son, new interview with George Stevens biographer Marilyn Ann Moss, new interview with writer Claudia Roth Pierpont on actor Katharine Hepburn, The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn, an 86-minute documentary from 1986, trailer, and an essay by critic Stephanie Zacharek.

Political Fictions

I'm not exactly sure why I missed out on reading Joan Didion's 2001 book of political essays, Political Fictions. I suspect it might have something to do with thinking that the essays weren't relevant since they mostly were written between 1988 and 1998. Recently on a political podcast, recommendations were made about documentaries about Republican spin doctors Get Me Roger Stone and Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story as well as Didion's essay "The West Wing of Oz" that was included in this collection. So I went down a political rabbit hole and consumed these recommendations. Didion's book not only survives the test of time, as most of her nonfiction does, but the observations she makes are still relevant in the Trump era. In "Insider Baseball" Didion reports on the 1988 campaign where George H.W. Bush handily defeats Michael Dukakis and Didion takes to task the sycophantic press corps that were not doing their jobs properly because they were kow tow-ing to both candidates. This is timely in the way that the press has normalized Trump behavior throughout his campaign and time in as president-is seems as if the press cannot stick to one disgraceful trope long enough to pin him down for it-sexism, the Russian meddling in the election, the conflict of interest with his businesses, etc. This is followed by the piece, “The West Wing of Oz”, that was recommended that is a great analysis of the Reagan presidency. "From the outset,” she writes, “the invention of a president who could be seen as active rather than passive, who could be understood to possess mysteriously invisible and therefore miraculously potent leadership skills, became a White House priority.” Trump, in his showmanship, can be traced back to the cypher Reagan, the savior of the GOP and master storyteller and actor. Reading Political Fictions makes me wonder what Joan Didion has to say about Trump's triumph. "Eyes on the Prize" is a look at Bill Clinton's "Putting People First" program, which was fashioned with language largely determined by focus groups. As a result, in the scramble for all-important swing votes in the center, the Democratic Party abandoned any mention of the disenfranchised, unless by disenfranchised it meant the allegedly forgotten middle class-something that Trump was able to exploit in 2016. Next in the collection was "Newt Gingrinch, Superstar" in which she eviscerates the former House leader's bullet-pointed To Renew America and his novel 1945, which envisions a future culled from cut-rate science fiction in a review. In "Political Pornography" is a take down of Bob Woodward, the ultimate insider journalist, whose book The Choice was built on extensive interviews with Bill Clinton and Bob Dole—access gained, she suspects, from his idea of "fairness," or an avoidance of asking tough questions. Then the last two essays deal with the Clinton Impeachment. The main thesis of the essay “Clinton Agonistes”: that everything that happened in the wake of the Lewinsky revelations was already known about Clinton’s character from the beginning-not a "vast right wing conspiracy." And in the second essay, "Vichy Washington" Didion exposes the gap between the press and Republicans who acted shocked about Clinton's sexual antics while the general public saw no need for a constitutional crisis with Clinton's behavior. This collection is an assemblage of shrewdly written critiques on modern day American politics and a classic of the genre.

Creepy

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is mostly known for horror films, so it should come as no surprise that Creepy (2016) is something of a horror film. It is something of a slow boil as the film clocks in at two hours and 10 minutes. A former detective, Takakura (Hideoshi Nishimura), has quit the force and taken a position as a lecturer at a university and has moved house with his wife (Yuko Takeuchi), and his new neighbor is something of an odd ball. A former colleague asks for his help on a six year old cold case about a missing family. The two story lines eventually converge. I don't want to give anymore away, but not one of Kurosawa's best efforts-interesting nonetheless.

Our Beloved Month Of August

I came across a list of summer films and was intrigued to see Miguel Gomes' Our Beloved Month Of August (2008) on the list. I was a big fan of his 2012 film Tabu. This is a curious mix of fiction and documentary-like footage of summer in Portugal and also a musical of sorts as he captures bands and people singing a variety of styles of Portuguese music from traditional ballads to rock songs.

Man Up

Man Up (2015) is a romantic comedy directed by Ben Palmer. I am not a big fan of the romantic comedy, but this film was effective mainly due to the two leads Simon Pegg and Lake Bell who meet when a mistake is made about a blind date. In fact I surprised to learn that Lake Bell was actually American she pulls off the accent.

The Witch Of The West Is Dead

Shuich Nagasaki's The Witch Of The West Is Dead (2008) is a charming little slice of life film about a young girl's coming of age. The girl (Mayu Takahashi) is having trouble fitting in at school and refuses to go. So her mother (Ryo) takes her out to her mother's house out in the countryside. There she basks in nature and learns life lessons for her English grand mother played by Sachi Parker. Parker grew up in Japan-her mastery of Japanese is obvious and she plays the kindly grandmother to perfection. It was a an effective feel good slice of life film.

DC BBQ

I had read something about a new American style BBQ joint in Azabu Juban, DC BBQ so I decided to check it out for myself.

We got the DC Combo full portion (750 grams), a bit too much as we couldn't finish it: smoked pork shoulder, pork belly, brisket, ribs, and chicken. Too be honest, it was a bit too dry-not sure who the smoker is, but Hatos still wears the crown.

Great sides though, including the Chili Con Queso with smoked brisket, red cheddar cheese, and red chili sauce and chips for ¥1200.

Mac and Cheese (with macaroni , Béchamel , Red Cheddar and three different types of cheese) for ¥1000.