Live every day as if it were your last and then some day you'll be right. ~ H.H. "Breaker" Morant

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

“I can say this to you with bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make the way for the new. Right now, the new is you, but some day not too long from now you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drown out your own inner voice, and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011 “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” – Final issue of Whole Earth Catalogue

The origin of O-Ren, or what might not pass the censors in flesh might as anime

When “Kill Bill” came out, it was a dizzy visual offering that borrowed and acknowledged those unique parts of the film library, the film genres and films gone by, for the cinematographically obsessed. The Asian influence was unmistakable. The use of anime to tell a background story was a welcome surprise, and a very appropriate approach considering O-Ren Ishii’s ancestry and birthplace. The gore would have passed the censors in a non-anime form (as shown later in the tea house scene for one), because for some reason gore is deemed less corrupting to our souls (but don’t you think the anime style gave it a peculiar edge?). What would have not passed was the young O-Ren’s method of getting closer to Boss Matsumoto to exact her revenge. If filmed in flesh, it would have made most of us squirm, feel very uncomfortable and challenged to make a leap into “but this is part of the plot/art”, alas unsuccessfully. I know I would have been all those. After all, I did not see the point of reading Nabokov’s “Lolita” – I simply did not care to understand Humbert Humbert’s madness (I drew the line on my liberalism there, but you won’t see me picketing…) – and seeing Stanley Kubrick’s take on that story did not make it better (as much as I love Kubrick’s stuff). Also, why do you think Adrian Lyne’s adaptation pretty much went straight to rental? Pedophilia does not work for most of us. This is why it is interesting that when delivered as anime not only did it pass the censors as an appropriate vehicle for providing character background, but it elicited barely a blink from the viewers. You might ask, do I have a point here? The things that make us squirm, uncomfortable and disgusted happen; therefore, there is always a place for them in literature, film and any other artistic media that draw from life. I think we should react to what we read, see and hear no matter how unnerving it is. As much as I like anime, I worry when it removes this distress with its gloss.
 

Sukiyaki and Chips: The Japanese Sounds of Music

1995. Took a note to have some period reference to where the West was at. The top five hits of 1995, according to the Billboard Top 100, were: 5. “On Bended Knee” Boyz II Men, 4. “Kiss from a Rose” Seal, 3. “Creep” TLC, 2. “Waterfalls” TLC (was a good year for them, obviously) and 1. “Gangsta’s Paradise” Coolio. When it comes to albums, same source, we had: 5. “CrazySexyCool” TLC, 4. “Hell Freezes Over” The Eagles (Really?! C’mon people! A 70s band?! Whatever…), 3. “II” Boyz II Men, 2. “The Hits” Garth Brooks and 1. “Cracked Rear View” Hootie & The Blowfish. If memory serves at all, I was somewhere in the territory of Pearl Jam, Silverchair, Alanis Morissette, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Green Day, Oasis, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, Björk, Nick Cave … you get the idea.*

Now that I set the scene for the ‘back in the days as I think it was’, you will understand why my eyebrows arched 1:32 minutes into “Sukiyaki and Chips”. Harajuku Park, Tokyo: Japanese rockers looking a bit à la Danny Zuko, with added variations on that style, dancing away in what seemed like freeform Twist to rock’n’roll. But it started to make sense when the girl said, “This is the best place in Japan for me. I can forget all about what I’m supposed to do or be and just loose myself in the rock’n’roll.” I stood corrected. Who was I to scoff at this?! Wasn’t this what it’s all about?!  The “this” and “it” being music and freedom that comes with music, or vice versa – take your pick regarding the order. Hell, take your pick whichever way! I had to put my ethnomusicologist / sociologist / anthropologist / cultural studies /journalist / keen-observer / for-once-open-minded-individual, or whatever it should’ve been, hat on for this documentary.

Next was the phenomenon of Lollipops – short term pop idols that were truly a flash in a pan. Groomed here, gone tomorrow. The disparaging teenager commentary voiceover encapsulated this music “scene” to a T. But hey, such is still the lot of pop music, I say. As it turned out, the prime customer base for Lollipop music was more clued in that it might’ve seemed at first. Actually, Japanese of all ages were aware of their escapist tendencies. As the barman said of the videos screened in the bars to keep the customers drinking, “Of course, I like naughty things. I like pornography. Soft porn, that is. So do most men after all. I think porn is about the most popular entertainment of all around here.” The voiceover added, “In some places is highbrow stuff. Expensive. For businessmen or foreign tourists. They take medieval classics and turn them into striptease. Very Japanese. These are a mixture of medieval and modern, in both story and music.” Cue in a hard rock track to a piece by kimono garbed, geisha-shogun coiffed performers emulating a sex scene. And the boobs came out. Then she gingerly hammered the bell to traditional music while stark naked.

Shift. Dr. Tsunoda had an explanation for why classical Japanese music sounds different. Something about the brain wiring that had to do with the uniqueness of the Japanese language. Left brain listens more. Even to Beethoven – the example of western music. More or less, that is. He threw in what I saw as a challenge – that westerners find Japanese classical music hard to understand. Ha! So rests play a huge part. OK … This was just his opinion all around anyhow. Cue in an avant-garde musical performance by one with many instruments. Admittedly, seeing it being done made it more fascinating. Just like any ‘challenging’ piece – from east or west, north or south. Bravo to the finale – a cow sound toy! All inspired by the sounds of Japan, its traditions, the silence … somehow … or so she said.

Ah, Yamaha pianos. Start learning music at 4! Embrace electronics! After all, they want to get to your “heart and soul.” Yamaha hoped to move the human race forward, at least musically, with the help of these new electronic instruments. Doof doof for world peace? Venture into space age sounds? Well… Just faster production of pop music for “the Japanese public [that] is so terribly limited in its taste.” Turned out that thinking about the musical wants of the Japanese public would’ve compromised, not so much the artistry, but the ability of some musicians to have a job they like and to express themselves as products of their environment. That’s if you are a pop group that can afford such notions (see Yellow Magic Orchestra in the studio below), because as everywhere around the world, the lot of Japanese musicians upholding the traditions was tough. Poor pay, fickle audiences wanting mainly some entertainment in the music hall, or reflections of their lives to sing to. They chose. Hell, they could make their own entertainment in the karaoke taxi while on the way to work! You better serve! They were the stars, in their spare time.

If you think I have spilled a lot of detail, fear not. If you pay attention, “Sukiyaki and Chips: The Japanese Sounds of Music” is dense with clues and information as to why Japanese music and music scenes were just so. The variety was there – whether up to your taste or not – and the music is everywhere, even in the most mundane.

*Disclaimer: Although stamped as a 1995-production, the “Sukiyaki and Chips: The Japanese Sounds of Music” footage turns out to be all 80s. That explains a lot. Me and 80s have a strange retrospective relationship. I draw a blank as to what I listened to back then as far as the entire decade is concerned. Madonna and Kylie Minogue featured somewhere in the second half … So much for my feigned alternative music snobbery.

Beauty sleep

Photo from Beauty Fool

I am the last one to argue for sleep to be a waste of time. Maybe back in the days, I saw all those precious hours as time during which so much could be done, but no more. Nowadays, sleeping is my hobby. Aha. Anything that would maximize its benefits I am up for. Enter the idea of silk pillow cases. Some would say they have plenty of beauty benefits like preventing frizzy hair, development of zits and wrinkles to name the classic few. Old wives’ tale this maybe, but if nothing else the superficial luxury of tossing in the silk for all those hours has my vote. Beauty sleep either way.

Calories and alcohol III

Continued from "Calories and alcohol" and "Calories and alcohol II"

Photos © MAK

In search of the best sushi in the world or as you like it II

“Best sushi in the world goes to the highest bidder”

and

“How to eat sushi sustainably”

 From Vanguard: Sushi to the Slaughter (Season 5, Episode 3 here)

 

Englishman in New York

Every now and then I deviate from the usual topics, but this song is too appropriate.

Cat Hot Pot – Neko Nabe

ねこ鍋：みちのく猫ものがたり  ( “Neko Nabe: A Tale of Cats in the Northern Provinces”) By 奥森すがり (Okumori Sugari) 2007 (Japan) here

“No, we’re not suggesting you poach your kitty! A clay donabe maybe the perfect vessel for preparing hot pots, but Japanese felines have their own idea: cleverly repurposing this cookware to create the cat equivalent of a four-poster bed. As pet owners across Japan can attest, something about the bowl shape of a donabe makes it irresistible to sleepy kitties. So instead of chucking a cracked or chipped pot, they leave them out for the ole Tiggers in their lives (the pots for cooking stored safely out of feline reach, of course).” Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat “Japanese Hot Pots”

Posted on JapanProbe.com by probeeden Man: What is this?! Woman: It’s neko nabe (cat pot)! Man: Oooh. Neko Nabe! Narrator: Once very popular,  we’ve prepared a lot of Neko Nabes.  We are attempting a mass neko nabe!  I wonder, if they’ll go into them… Woman: Ready? Start!

HTML Tables

Anthony Bourdain No Reservations Osaka 大阪 Japan

What a culinary feast! *heavily salivating*

The Samurai shopping list

By Naomi Moriyama and William Doyle –

Salmon

Fresh vegetables, raw or slightly simmered

Brown rice

Miso soup

Tofu and soybeans

Fresh fruit

Green tea

Chestnuts