Nerds!

Tomorrow night at midnight! (Saturday 8/11)

New Beverly Cinema
7165 West Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

8-9-45 11:02

Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the world's second atomic bomb attack: Nagasaki.

Back in 2000 I was visiting Hiroshima and was able to attend the 55th anniversary memorial service of the first atomic bomb attack. It was a profoundly sad occasion that was passed with great decorum and civility without any angry or maudlin moments, for which there was great risk. While the majority of the attendees were Japanese of all ages, there were also a large number of non-Japanese there. Somehow there was a unity formed with all attending parties, and the desire for an end to violent conflict and wanton death was palpable in the air. At the risk of sounding trite, at that moment one could believe that Peace did, in fact, 'have a chance'.

There's not much else to write beyond that, but legendary Japanese cultural scholar Donald Richie has a book review in The Japan Times of Kikuko Otake's MASAKO'S STORY: Surviving the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima that is worth reading-- less for the comments about the book itself, than for his own reminiscence on the bombings of Hiroshima (specifically) and Nagasaki. For those who don't know, Donald Richie first came to Japan (where he has lived for almost 60 years) as part of the post-war US occupational forces.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

The cenotaph for the Hiroshima victims reads "Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil," but war goes on incessantly in what promises to be the most bloody of decades and the evil here referenced, the atomic bomb, is commonly flaunted as a threat. How then can the souls of the Hiroshima dead rest in peace?

One way is to keep them always in mind and never to forget what happened on Aug. 6, 1945. But that was over 60 years ago, the lifetime of a generation, and forgetting is a way of recovering. Also, while we can keep alive the death of a loved one or two, it is more difficult to feel the same way about larger numbers of people. With the best will in the world, we cannot encompass the emotional demands of thousands — and the atomic bomb destroyed hundreds of thousands of people.

In addition the dead have been drafted for political purposes. It is now commonplace to hear use of the bomb absolved by reference to all of those lives saved that would otherwise have been sacrificed. But those thus hypothetically saved are only nominally alive and those that the bomb killed are actually and irrefutably dead. The future can never vindicate the past. Only the present can do that. So how is memory of what happened in Hiroshima to be kept alive, to be retained in its pain and horror? Each year the task becomes more difficult.

I remember when horror was fresh. That was when I first read about what had happened in Hiroshima. I read it in that special issue of The New Yorker magazine that contained all of John Hersey's report on the effects of the bomb on the city and its people. I read about it here in Tokyo as I was a member of the Occupation forces at the time.

None of us knew much about Hiroshima, since travel there was not yet permitted and the photographs and later accounts were still censored. Such was the Occupation attitude that even this issue of The New Yorker was banned. All of us were thus learning for the first time what had actually occurred.

There was no forgetting this. It was too horrible, too recent, too close. The atomic bomb, far from being a political plaything, was indeed evil, and all of us felt this — and the onus of having used it, no matter how many lives it hypothetically saved.

Read the rest here.

After a Seven Month Sabbatical, KAIJU SHAKEDOWN is Back!

I'm happy to report that my friend and writing partner Grady Hendrix is back on the Asian Cinema blog game!

Bit of a change of venue for him: he no longer posts through Variety directly, but through their Asian film outlet, Variety Asia. (See? You can tell it's 'Asian' by the dragon on its logo!)

The kaijushakedown.com link at this point only takes you to the old archive, but hopefully they should have that rectified soon. In the meantime you can access it through these steps:

1) Go to http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/

2) Go to the menu bar where it says "Departments"

3) Pull that down and click on "Kaiju Shakedown"

There ya go!

Welcome back Grady!

Real Doll Doctor is on IFC.com!

Just found out that my short documentary REAL DOLL DOCTOR has been up on IFC.com's site since July 2nd?! (Thanks to the Rooftop Film Festival!)

Link.

See my previous posts here.

Amoeba Videos

I've been editing for Amoeba Music here in Hollywood and several of my videos are now up on-line. This video I made for the veteran avant-garde noise group Nurse With Wound was cut from their April 5th in store performance at Amoeba Music Hollywood. The clip just went up yesterday (along with a Tegan & Sara teaser clip I cut) and is this weeks Featured Video on Amoeba.com.

Hello Kitty...

Gaaahhhh!

And there's a video on the site.

(This pic is for Marc & Jen):

悪なあなた (Waru na Anata) aka. "It's Your Fault" A HOTWAX CD

I've written a bit about HOTWAX in a previous post (link), so since it's been a while I thought I'd write about their new CD release 悪なあなた (Waru na Anata) aka. "It's Your Fault". Falling under HOTWAX's 'Queen of Japanese Pops' sub-section, it is a bit of a departure from their (typically) more movie related releases.

Advertised as a collection of awesome songs performed by "Cute and Slutty 1970s Bad Girls" (!), I knew I had to own it once I saw the cover featuring the foxy Tsutsui Mari (津々井まり) taken from her album "The Love of the Mermaid" (人魚の恋).

The disc is an 18 track omnibus of different sexy ladies crooning and moaning their way through different pop songs. Much less overtly pornographic (like NOT at all) than the Ike Reiko's 恍惚の世界 "The Ecstatic World of Ike Reiko" album I wrote about previously, the tracks follow a typical formula of sing about a current lover, a lover who spurned the singer, or someone they want to get nasty with.

The music itself is pure 70s pop sensation with some tracks veering towards disco or funk, while others feel like they're leftover from some late 1960s studio sessions.

One of my favorite ones musically is the disco funk dripping track by "Erunand" (is this even the correct romaji?) called "Love is Um-Um" (エルナンド／恋はウムウム-- and no, I have no idea what it means either).

For the most part the music is fairly bland but the lyrics are a hoot. Often times their lyrical content is the kind that should, by rights, infuriate any self respecting woman while at others seem like they were written by a love torn 12-year-old girl (or, more likely, a man pretending to be a 12-year-old girl!).

Check out these ones from the excellent "Always in Bed..." (フラワー・メグ／ベッドにばかりいるの).

I'm always together with you in bed

The flowers haven't been watered... [we're] always in bed

We just stare at each other without doing anything

We just smile at each other without doing anything

We're always smooching without doing anything

We don't do anything

I'm always together with you in bed

etc...

Pretty mind-blowing lyrics, eh?

The booklet is, as usual, printed on high quality paper stock with beautiful graphic design and font choices. There is a brief forward by the HOTWAX staff introducing the album as a treat for those who remember these songs and for those for whom it is their first time hearing them. (I fall in the latter camp, 'natch.) We then go on to brief bios of all of the artists in order of appearance on the CD and then in the final section all of the lyrics are reprinted in their brilliant glory. Additionally, there are photos of all of the singers and since this was the 1970s and therefore the heyday of the pop idol as pin-up star, there are many pix of these ladies in bikinis-- or sometimes even less. (Meow!)

It seems clear that the "It's Your Fault" comp appears to be designed for joint consumption with HOTWAX's 「Hotwax presents 歌謡曲名曲名盤ガイド」Queen of Japanese Pops Vol. 1. ** , a full color guide book to1970s Japanese girl pop. Many of the HOTWAX releases are like this, but for me, I'm not sure this time how far I'm prepared to dive into it and therefore will probably pass on buying it or any others in this series, preferring to stick with the movie related releases.

When taken as a whole, the entire HOTWAX catalog showcases a lot of cool retro Japanese pop culture, but for me, I think I was expecting a little more bad ass biker chick and less bikini wearing sauciness. But, for what it is, the "It's Your Fault" CD release is a lot of fun.

**On the HOTWAX page there's a dubious subtitle for the book, which I can't find on the dust jacket: 「バッド・ガール＊セクシー＊やさぐれ：Bitch, Sexy & Fury (!)」. Chart this up as a Japanese misunderstanding of the word 'bitch'-- and we can thank 50 Cent and Dre for dat.