Do you plan to be buried, cremated, cryogenically frozen or something else?
Submitted by aynge.

Eh, the "something else" in this question brought a lot of morbid scenes to mind. Like "sky burials" in Tibet, or that guy who wanted his body ground up into dog food for a local shelter. 

(If you go to Wikipedia and look up "sky burial," there's an actual photo of a corpse left out for the vultures to eat. I was wondering if it was faked, not that I wanted to study the photo carefully.)

It's a practical way of disposing of one's remains, I suppose, especially if you really, really care for animals. But I want my body to go in the style of the old country and be burned to ashes, with monks chanting sutras for my salvation.

Not that it's gonna help.

I came home late tonight from a Mother's Day barbecue and found myself too cranked up to go to bed, maybe from eating a large portion of tenderloin for dinner. (Don't ask. It was delicious and I felt absolutely horrible afterwards.)  So I started watching the DVD version of Slumdog Millionaire.  If you haven't seen this movie, it's well worth taking a couple of hours out of your weekend to watch it: but on this third viewing I found myself more interested in the music than the plot development.

(I saw it first on the big screen, at the wretchedly awful Grandview Cinema---c'mon guys, just because it's an architectural treasure doesn't mean you can't upgrade the screening quality or the seats---then on the Fox Searchlight DVD, which didn't have the advertised special features. I had to register to get a new copy that included the Danny Boyle interview, deleted scenes, and other special feature gewgaw: then when I got the new copy, Fox had the nerve to ask me to mail the screwed up copy back "at your leisure."  I still have the featureless copy and would be happy to give it to anyone who wants it, if they aren't interested in watching Danny Boyle instructing the boy actor who plays Jamal on how to feign constipation in the privy.)

A taste for Indian pop music came slowly to me: Daughter #2 first introduced it to our household thanks to her Tibetan friend, who had acquired a taste for Bollywood while she was growing up in India. My first response was "It all sounds alike;" but I wasn't really listening at the time. Later, when my Third World Cinema class forced me to watch Indian films more closely, I started to get hooked, especially after I did my graduate presentation on Lagaan (2001) that year.

But I'm still pretty un-hip compared to my kids, who knew about MIA's "Paper Planes" before the song was featured on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.

  
Anyway, I think I have lost all common sense after having seen the Lucky Lips video on the More Hockey, Less War blog ("possibly the only anti-war hockey blog in the universe," written out of Portland, Oregon, of course). The song  isn't great, and the lip synching is awful, but those schoolgirl uniforms are straight out of an anime fanboy's fantasy, and the scene where the girls take on the British Navy is too cute.

 
And this is what happens when I forget to refill my sleeping meds prescription. *sigh*

Though these guys are pretty cute. I didn't know you could walk penguins without a leash.

I got this from Japan Probe, which is an English-language online Japanese newssite. (Nice for those of us who don't want to spend an hour trying to decode Japanese newspapers online.)  I know bento can take some amazing forms, but this one confirms for me that Obama has become sort of an international fashion statement.

I'm guessing that kamaboko (steamed pressed fish cake) was used for the white lettering and stars, while pickled ginger or strips of salmon were used for the red stripes. The black stuff is nori, dried pressed seaweed.

The question is, will this enthusiasm translate into better relations between the U.S. and other countries? The French have been putting Obama's mug on designer dresses and t-shirts, but that doesn't make them more fond of Americans.

Dunno. Maybe we should just enjoy the international goodwill while we can.

Yes We Can [Bento Edition]

Posted: 11 Nov 2008 06:03 PM CST

Japanese blogger and boxed lunch fanatic Kasumin has posted this bento celebrating Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S. presidential election:

An explanation of her boxed lunch creations can be read here in English.
[via BUYO]

(Spoiler alert: I talk briefly about the end of this film, which came out in 1999 and is available for viewing in parts on YouTube.)

I thought there was something a little ironic about the Walker Art Center opening their Nagisa Oshima retrospective with Gohatto right after Election Day, when Proposition 8 in California passed. Gohatto (translated as "Taboo" in the U.S.) is about the sexual tension that emerges when a beautiful young samurai is recruited into the ranks of the shogunate's elite militia, the Shinsengumi. While homosexuality is not overtly condemned by samurai code or Japanese society at the time (still is not, but it's not openly discussed either), sexual relationships among the men are regarded as potentially damaging to the rigid discipline of the militia. The commander of the militia, played by 'Beat' Takeshi, tries to defuse the young man's affect on his fellow soldiers, first by testing him against the other samurai in training matches, then by trying to introduce him to women: but Kano, the young samurai, is an excellent swordsman who can compete with the best of the militia, and he is resistant to even the most seductive courtesan's advances. A love triangle eventually ignites jealousy and murder within the ranks, and Kano is revealed to be as cruel and ruthless as he is beautiful.

Not unexpectedly, Oshima's film focuses less on homosexuality than on the relationship between sex and death, between the desire of the individual and its undermining of social order: in Oshima's most notorious film, "In the Realm of the Senses," sexual obsession leads to murder as the two lovers become increasingly self-absorbed, ignoring all other social relationships. There is a similar denouement in Gohatto, but it's complicated by gender references and the disjunct of power within the ranks of the militia and between men and women. Kano as a new recruit and young "feminine" male is exploited by the other men, as are the few female characters in the film, but in time he exploits the other men's desire for him. There is also a streak of homophobia among the senior officers even as they themselves seem to struggle with their own confused feelings for Kano. Late in the film there's a strange scene of a perhaps fantasized or inferred encounter between Kano, who appears dressed in a blood-red kimono, and a handsome young officer who has expressed disdain for Kano and his lover and who claims he is "not that way." The viewer doesn't know whether this is a suspicious thought within the commander's mind, or a suppressed desire on the part of the officer. The commander declares in the end that this situation cannot go on, however. Eros is ultimately destructive to the warrior ethos of discipline and loyalty to a centralized authority or idea. The conflicts caused by the presence of Kano create chaos and discorder, so he must be killed. 

I thought of Proposition 8 after seeing this film because it seemed like the people who voted in favor of it voiced their own fear of chaos and disorder, that gays and lesbians marrying would somehow upset the order of their own perceived universe. Along with the perception that being gay is "unnatural," there seems to be this anxiety that gay/lesbian relationships threaten public or institutional order. It's ironic to me however, as gays who seek legal recognition of their marriages (and families, as many of these couples also have children, both adopted and natural) seem to be the only people who take marriage seriously. Heterosexuals have themselves redefined the nuclear family with their own formal and informal relationships, with divorced couples seeking joint custody of children and even pets, with unmarried couples having children and remaining together without a license, with "committed partners" who buy houses together and share in major financial and business transactions, all of which are recognized by business and government institutions. To refuse to give gay marriages full legal status is allowing irrational anxiety and hate to dictate public discourse. Or as Oshima suggests, it is allowing one's own suppressed fear and desire to destroy the happiness of individuals.     

I've been watching the various stories in the Japanese press about this guy, who is somewhat like a Japanese Sasha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G. or Borat) in that he does sometimes funny imitations of celebrity figures or types. Nocchi started doing his Obama imitation using brown-toned makeup: but when his production company decided to send him to the States to meet the real Obama, he quit after being told his use of makeup might be seen as offensive. Japanese entertainers still wear blackface in camp imitations of The Supremes and other African American artists, but it's only been recently that they've become more sensitive about how they're perceived by people outside of Japan.

So Nocchi came to the U.S. with just a "natural" tan that he acquired after spending a couple of weeks on a tanning bed. I don't know how convincing his imitation of Obama is, but apparently The Man himself took their meeting in stride.

(By the way: Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class by Eric Lott is a really good book about the phenomenon of blackface minstrel shows in the U.S. If anyone is still interested in exploring the history of race and culture in the U.S. after all the subrosa race references of this election, this is the book to read.)

Japan Probe

Bright future for Japan’s Obama impersonator

Posted: 06 Nov 2008 10:55 PM CST

A couple days ago, I posted about Japanese Obama impersonator Nozomu Sato (Nocchi) and linked to an article about him in the Chicago Tribune. His long-awaited meeting with the real Obama was aired on Japanese TV Wednesday night, so here it is [via Black Tokyo]:

Part 1

Nocchi accepts the TV program’s challenge and travels to Chicago. He first attempts to visit Obama’s house, but is turned away by police.
Part 2:

Nocchi then attempts to visit an Obama offices in Chicago. Since he has no appointment, he is turned away.

His next target is a neighborhood Obama is said to frequent, where Nocchi gets a haircut from Obama’s barber. The friendliness of the people gives Nocchi an optimistic feeling, so he tries to visit another Obama office. This time, security allows him inside the building, but Obama is not there. Staff tell Nocchi that they will notify higher ups about his visit. Nocchi also receives Obama’s business card.

Part 3

Word spreads about Nocchi, and the Chicago Tribune comes to interview him.　After the interview, the crew gets word from campaign sources that Obama will appear in New York City that night. Nocchi waits in the street for hours, successfully spotting the Obama motorcade and waving to Obama. Nocchi believes that he has fulfilled his contract, but the TV crew informs him that he needs better proof of Obama acknowledging his existence.

Later that night, they get word of an Obama rally being held the next day in St. Louis. It is the last day of their trip to America, and it will be Nocchi’s last chance to meet Obama.

Part 4

Nocchi inches his way to the front of a huge crowd and listens to Obama’s speech. When the speech ends, Obama comes down to shake hands with people in the crowd. Nocchi grabs Obama’s hand and gets a handshake. Obama seems to acknowledge Nocchi’s existence, so the contract is fulfilled!

Upon hearing of comedian Nocchi’s encounter with the real Barack Obama, the Asahi Shimbun has declared that the Japanese Obama impersonator has a “bright future” ahead of him. We’ll certainly be seeing a lot more of his Obama act on TV for the next 4 to 8 years, but that may not necessarily be a great thing for Nocchi. According to a survey translated at What Japan Thinks, a majority of Japanese TV viewers feel that Obama’s victory will not positively effect Nocchi’s career.

Video: Victory celebrations in Obama City

Posted: 05 Nov 2008 01:29 AM CST

President Obama & Japan

Posted: 04 Nov 2008 10:01 PM CST

Barack Obama has won the U.S. presidential election. What does this mean for Japan? Here are a few links to information about Obama’s views about East Asia:

• Japan dialogue key to U.S. interests in Asia by Obama advisors Richard J. Danzig and Joseph S. Nye (Asahi)
• The question of whether a Republican or Democratic US President is “better” for Japan (TPR)
• Factbox: Obama policies on major Asia issues (Reuters)
• East Asia cautious on Obama trade policy (AFP)
• U.S. candidates vow to ‘re-engage’ Japan (Japan Times)