This guy is my new hero.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Three to check out
Sound: Lupe Fiasco's The Cool. The Chicago rapper collaborates once again with Kanye West to prove that his strong freshman outing was no fluke. The cuts featuring Matthew Santos are particularly noteworthy, and "Paris, Tokyo" will have you and your friends bopping your heads all the way to your after school manga club meeting. Purchase, spin, kick, push, and coast.
Screen: Jerome Oliver's Missing Pages. A seriously cool stop motion short film about regret and the dangers of technology. Mizutani Nobu is delightfully creepy as The Commissioner, and the butoh dancers from the legendary Dairakudan group are a joy to watch as the Core Units, a group of ghoulish, white-faced figures who haunt the protagonist. Watch it in it's entirety here. (24 min.)
Page: Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami. Like overseas counterparts Toni Morrison and Sherman Alexie, Murakami deftly blends the fantastic and the real in a tale that charts the evolution of a lost adolescent while exploring taboos both new and old. Never mind that the narrative borders on awkward and outlandish. Murakami is such a master stylist that by the time the whole thing unravels, you're just happy to be along for the ride. Call it Jane Eyre for the perverse and curious.
Screen: Jerome Oliver's Missing Pages. A seriously cool stop motion short film about regret and the dangers of technology. Mizutani Nobu is delightfully creepy as The Commissioner, and the butoh dancers from the legendary Dairakudan group are a joy to watch as the Core Units, a group of ghoulish, white-faced figures who haunt the protagonist. Watch it in it's entirety here. (24 min.)
Page: Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami. Like overseas counterparts Toni Morrison and Sherman Alexie, Murakami deftly blends the fantastic and the real in a tale that charts the evolution of a lost adolescent while exploring taboos both new and old. Never mind that the narrative borders on awkward and outlandish. Murakami is such a master stylist that by the time the whole thing unravels, you're just happy to be along for the ride. Call it Jane Eyre for the perverse and curious.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Progressive thinking
Just in time for Super Tuesday, Democrats Abroad gives us VoteFromAbroad.org. For members of the MySpace generation who can't be bothered to fill out and send multiple forms through the (unreliable) international post to the (unreliable) US Government, this is an absolute gift. Two minutes spent online completing a registration survey (or the time it takes to watch four YouTube videos, if you prefer to think that way), and you're all set to vote in the first ever global primary on February 5. The internet is a wondrous tool - apathy be damned.
To register and vote by internet, fax, mail, or in-person at one of Democrats Abroad's 34 global polling sites, go to http://www.votefromabroad.org/.
To register and vote by internet, fax, mail, or in-person at one of Democrats Abroad's 34 global polling sites, go to http://www.votefromabroad.org/.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Something about a big foosball game
Seems as though productivity here has slowed rather monumentally in the past week - I guess the blog shuts down just like everything else when the green and gold are in the playoffs. I promise to post more in the coming week, but here's a little gift from me to you in the meantime. Go Pack!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
MEDIA BLACKOUT EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
At 7:30 PM Japan time (UTC/GMT +9) on Sunday, January 13, I will be watching a taped broadcast of the Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks Divisional Championship game. Please do not attempt to contact me or alert me of the score before this time or during the subsequent three hours, as any effort to do so will be met with violent retribution. Thank you.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Why I love Japan - Entry 4
When I was ten I loved video game arcades.
When I was ten, I loved video game arcades.
Japanese people love their arcades like they love tofu or awkwardly aggressive pornography. It seems you can't walk through the major shopping areas of any city without running into at least one arcade on every other block.
Here's the catch: It's not just pre-teens and nerdy twenty-something's inhabiting them either. Walk into any arcade in Japan and you're likely to find at least four thirty-year-olds throwing down on rubber-bound taiko drums. Subsequently, pay no mind to the business man in his forties working up a sweat on DDR during his lunch break. Arcades are second only to Pachinko parlors in eating up the 100 yen coins of Nihonjin everywhere. Did I mention they have a fully simulated Mario Kart game?
I love it. And I'm twenty-three.
Don't believe me? Check out this video I took in Osaka of two grown men showing their lightning-quick finger skills on a DJ game:
so ill it turned my camera sideways
When I was ten, I loved video game arcades.
Japanese people love their arcades like they love tofu or awkwardly aggressive pornography. It seems you can't walk through the major shopping areas of any city without running into at least one arcade on every other block.
Here's the catch: It's not just pre-teens and nerdy twenty-something's inhabiting them either. Walk into any arcade in Japan and you're likely to find at least four thirty-year-olds throwing down on rubber-bound taiko drums. Subsequently, pay no mind to the business man in his forties working up a sweat on DDR during his lunch break. Arcades are second only to Pachinko parlors in eating up the 100 yen coins of Nihonjin everywhere. Did I mention they have a fully simulated Mario Kart game?
I love it. And I'm twenty-three.
Don't believe me? Check out this video I took in Osaka of two grown men showing their lightning-quick finger skills on a DJ game:
so ill it turned my camera sideways
Thursday, January 10, 2008
In tecmo-color
No predictions from this camp, but this is one of the coolest things I've seen in some time.
Go here to see how it plays out.
Go here to see how it plays out.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Political jargon
Caught this in an article by Tim Dickinson about the Iowa caucus on Rollingstone.com and found it to be particularly interesting:
"The turnout on the Democratic side was unreal. It soared from 124,000 in 2004 to 230,000 in 2008. And that’s all about the man who won.
Obama’s been drawing record crowds from San Francisco to Des Moines — but there was always the question of whether he could produce a similar effect among real live voters.
He did so in a way that no one predicted. 57 percent of the caucus goers tonight had never caucused before. Most impressive: As many people under thirty showed up as senior citizens.
That’s fucking nuts is what that is. That’s the Rock the Vote political wet dream that never ever comes true… actually coming true. What this portends for Obama as a national candidate is something truly special. He’s not only proven that he can draw the support of independents and open-minded Republicans. He’s the one guy who can make the Democratic pie higher, bringing new, unlikely voters into the fold. If he could replicate this kind of support among young people in a general election, it’s game over."
Not giving you my views, just chasing the intrigue.
"The turnout on the Democratic side was unreal. It soared from 124,000 in 2004 to 230,000 in 2008. And that’s all about the man who won.
Obama’s been drawing record crowds from San Francisco to Des Moines — but there was always the question of whether he could produce a similar effect among real live voters.
He did so in a way that no one predicted. 57 percent of the caucus goers tonight had never caucused before. Most impressive: As many people under thirty showed up as senior citizens.
That’s fucking nuts is what that is. That’s the Rock the Vote political wet dream that never ever comes true… actually coming true. What this portends for Obama as a national candidate is something truly special. He’s not only proven that he can draw the support of independents and open-minded Republicans. He’s the one guy who can make the Democratic pie higher, bringing new, unlikely voters into the fold. If he could replicate this kind of support among young people in a general election, it’s game over."
Not giving you my views, just chasing the intrigue.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Nihonjin of the week: Noriyuki "Pat" Morita
Who he is: Mr. Miyagi, Academy Award nominee (1984)
Why he rules: While he technically lived nearly his entire life in the United States, Morita made The Karate Kid's Keisuke Miyagi an iconic symbol of the East in America. Not only did Morita gain fame and a best supporting actor nomination for his work on TV and film, but he also overcame spinal tuberculosis at age two and the detainment of his family in a WWII internment camp by age eleven. Although most people will remember him for his famous "wax on, wax off" mantra, I will choose to remember Pat Morita for drunkenly approaching Brett Favre during a Monday Night Football game, and for kicking the asses of these guys, presumably for saying "it's party time":
Why he rules: While he technically lived nearly his entire life in the United States, Morita made The Karate Kid's Keisuke Miyagi an iconic symbol of the East in America. Not only did Morita gain fame and a best supporting actor nomination for his work on TV and film, but he also overcame spinal tuberculosis at age two and the detainment of his family in a WWII internment camp by age eleven. Although most people will remember him for his famous "wax on, wax off" mantra, I will choose to remember Pat Morita for drunkenly approaching Brett Favre during a Monday Night Football game, and for kicking the asses of these guys, presumably for saying "it's party time":
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Dondake?!
What is "dondake?!" What does it mean? It's a damn good question, and one that I still haven't quite put my finger on.
Here's what I've surmised thus far: There's this Japanese television personality named Ikko who pops up on variety shows now and then. Ikko is an okama, a Japanese drag queen, and about every ten seconds or so she wags her finger and snaps and exclaims "dondake?!" If this all sounds terribly strange and unfunny to you, it's because, well...it is. But "dondake?!" is a tour-de-force in the way that "Who Let the Dogs Out" stormed through the US, and as such it's intrigue is at least worth a short study.
"Dondake," it appears, is not a Japanese word. Nor is it a likely candidate for catch phrase of the year. However, the word originally bred from the Shinjuku 2-Chrome gay scene has caught fire in the past six months and has become nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. What this means, naturally, is that my students - inspired by the effeminate Ikko (think Perez Hilton with his own television show) - have taken every chance to bombard me with calls of "Dondake?!" since my arrival. What began as something perplexing and unfunny is now simply, well, unfunny.
So what does it mean? Essentially, the phrase seems to boil down to the Japanese equivalent of "WTF?" (or "who cares," or "whatever," or something entirely different depending on who you ask) but after investigation, I'm not sure the meaning is the important part. I sat down to write an entry intended to rail against the sheer stupidity of "dondake?!," but upon review what's come out is, at the very least, an acknowledgment of the staying power of a catch phrase.
I may not understand it, but what the hell. Dondake?!
Here's what I've surmised thus far: There's this Japanese television personality named Ikko who pops up on variety shows now and then. Ikko is an okama, a Japanese drag queen, and about every ten seconds or so she wags her finger and snaps and exclaims "dondake?!" If this all sounds terribly strange and unfunny to you, it's because, well...it is. But "dondake?!" is a tour-de-force in the way that "Who Let the Dogs Out" stormed through the US, and as such it's intrigue is at least worth a short study.
"Dondake," it appears, is not a Japanese word. Nor is it a likely candidate for catch phrase of the year. However, the word originally bred from the Shinjuku 2-Chrome gay scene has caught fire in the past six months and has become nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. What this means, naturally, is that my students - inspired by the effeminate Ikko (think Perez Hilton with his own television show) - have taken every chance to bombard me with calls of "Dondake?!" since my arrival. What began as something perplexing and unfunny is now simply, well, unfunny.
So what does it mean? Essentially, the phrase seems to boil down to the Japanese equivalent of "WTF?" (or "who cares," or "whatever," or something entirely different depending on who you ask) but after investigation, I'm not sure the meaning is the important part. I sat down to write an entry intended to rail against the sheer stupidity of "dondake?!," but upon review what's come out is, at the very least, an acknowledgment of the staying power of a catch phrase.
I may not understand it, but what the hell. Dondake?!
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