I'm going to a box karaoke bar this weekend and I needed to brush up on my repertoire. Couldn't find any decent phonetic transcriptions of "Linda Linda" by the Blue Hearts so I drew this up.
Dobu nezumi mitai ni
Utsukushiku naritai
Shashin no ni wa utsuranai
Utshukushi saa ga aru kara
Moshi mo boku ga itsuka
Kimi to de ai hanashi au nara
Sonna toki wa dou ka ai no
Imi o shitte kudasai
Dobu nezumi mitai ni
Dare yori mo yasashi
Dobu nezumi mitai ni
Nani yori mo atatakaku
Moshi mo boku ga itsuka
kimi to de ai hanashi au nara
Sonna toki wa dou ka ai no
Imi o shitte kudasai
Ai jaa na kutemo koi jaa na kutemo
kimi o hanashi wa shinai
Keshite makenai
Tsuyoi chikara o
Boku wa hitotsu dake motsu
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Media gets it all wrong on Clinton
Bill Clinton had nothing to do with the release of captured journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. George Bush Jr. or Sr. could have done. Jimmy Carter could have done it. Ronald Reagan or Gerald Ford could have done it if either one was still alive. The only requirement was that somebody with the stature of an ex-president visit N. Korea and treat with Kim Jong Il. Once on the ground Clinton and Kim could have talked about golf, the virtues of the Big Mac or whatever else they wanted to for 30 minutes and it wouldn't have had any effect on the end result.
The North Korean regime is playing the game of international diplomacy. Anybody with half a brain and any knowledge of how these things work would have predicted that the N. Koreans would give up Ling and Lee given the proper payoff. The payoff here was an ex-president and with him the inevitable suggestion of legitimacy.
The North Korean regime is playing the game of international diplomacy. Anybody with half a brain and any knowledge of how these things work would have predicted that the N. Koreans would give up Ling and Lee given the proper payoff. The payoff here was an ex-president and with him the inevitable suggestion of legitimacy.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Watchmen in trouble?
The weekend box office gross was lower than expected. There are reports of audiences walking out on the movie. And now the screen writer is begging fanboys to go see the movie again this weekend.
Alan Moore said that the comic book was unfilmable, and maybe he was right. What happens when you take a great comic book and slavishly transcribe it to film? You get a great comic book and a mediocre movie. The common complaint among the critics is that the movie is so faithful to the source material that it's embalmed. One of the great joys of the comic book was that it made no attempt to explain itself to the reader--instead it deliberately confused you and gradually revealed itself over the course of 12 issues. Compressing that into a movie, even one with a running time of three hours, is probably impossible.
I've always argued that there's no point in releasing a cover for a song if it sounds exactly like the original. What's the point?
Alan Moore said that the comic book was unfilmable, and maybe he was right. What happens when you take a great comic book and slavishly transcribe it to film? You get a great comic book and a mediocre movie. The common complaint among the critics is that the movie is so faithful to the source material that it's embalmed. One of the great joys of the comic book was that it made no attempt to explain itself to the reader--instead it deliberately confused you and gradually revealed itself over the course of 12 issues. Compressing that into a movie, even one with a running time of three hours, is probably impossible.
I've always argued that there's no point in releasing a cover for a song if it sounds exactly like the original. What's the point?
Friday, March 06, 2009
Shintaro Kago
You've got to love teh intertubes--more great free stuff. Some humanitarian has translated and posted up Shintaro Kago comics.
Shintaro Kago comics
Warning: NSFW, unless you happen to work someplace cool.
Shintaro Kago comics
Warning: NSFW, unless you happen to work someplace cool.
Wall-E can suck my balls, or how the Japanese do Bambi
How is it that Pixar somehow became the gold standard for American animation when their product is so uniformly mediocre? I read the reviews for "Wall-E", bought a ticket and spent two hours being thoroughly bored. I couldn't even sit through the first fifteen minutes of "Ratatouille". The animation's competently done but it's also bland and sterile and the writing's not even that good. It's a shame that Pixar, with a budget of millions, consistently produces work which is so flavorless. Compare their movies to the classic Warner Brothers shorts, with their swagger and startling cynicism. The best American animation being produced right now is "The Venture Brothers", which has got a fraction of the budget of a Pixar film and exponentially more creativity and life.
Part of the problem is that Pixar makes children's films and in America today that translates to bland and safe. It wasn't always that way--"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" wasn't afraid to tackle issues like failure and end on a downbeat note. And there's always foreign animation, produced in foreign lands where the population is not necessarily convinced that shielding kids from the more unpleasant aspects of life is such a good idea. Somebody's posted up "Chirin no Suzu" on YouTube. Hurry up and watch it before it vanishes to see a cartoon that doesn't dumb itself down just because its target audience is children.
"Chirin no Suzu" on YouTube
Somebody's also posted up "La Maison en Petit Cubes", which is convenient since I can't figure out if its available in iTunes or not.
"La Maison en Petit Cubes" on YouTube
Part of the problem is that Pixar makes children's films and in America today that translates to bland and safe. It wasn't always that way--"A Boy Named Charlie Brown" wasn't afraid to tackle issues like failure and end on a downbeat note. And there's always foreign animation, produced in foreign lands where the population is not necessarily convinced that shielding kids from the more unpleasant aspects of life is such a good idea. Somebody's posted up "Chirin no Suzu" on YouTube. Hurry up and watch it before it vanishes to see a cartoon that doesn't dumb itself down just because its target audience is children.
"Chirin no Suzu" on YouTube
Somebody's also posted up "La Maison en Petit Cubes", which is convenient since I can't figure out if its available in iTunes or not.
"La Maison en Petit Cubes" on YouTube
Friday, February 27, 2009
More Heresy Department
Dambisa Moyo in the NY Times: Stop all aid to Africa, Bono's an idiot and nobody feels sorry for the Chinese.
I've always wondered why an ability to sing makes somebody an expert on foreign policy. Maybe in the future "American Idol" contestants will give five minute oral presentations on George Kennan. My guess is that it's part of the same American idiocy that bestows sainthood on the relatives of people unlucky enough to be in a building when it was hit by an airplane. That makes about as much sense as appointing me to head GM's car safety division because I got in a fender bender, or worse yet my relatives and friends. For some of those friends the solution would be to install bongs in every car, because everybody knows that when you're stoned you drive really, really slow.
Related note: it's been brought up over and over that Africa and Asia were in the same boat in terms of being rural economies facing the challenge of industrialization in the 20th century, but that Asia was able to claw its way into the first world while Africa is still mired in the third. I wonder what the state of the literature is in detailing the differences the approaches countries on the two continents went through in modernizing themselves. One story I heard on NPR a few years ago speculated that part of the difference was in educational spending: Asian countries invested in primary education (termed in the US as "K-12") while African countries invested in high prestige universities.
Interestingly enough, isn't affirmative action in the US simply a transplanted version of the inferior, repudiated African model? What's the point of getting disadvantaged kids to college if the primary schools they came from are wrecks which are incapable of providing the basic education their students will presumably need to succeed in a higher education setting?
Finally, could it be that nobody feels sorry for the Chinese because they talk funny and play an inferior variant of checkers?
I've always wondered why an ability to sing makes somebody an expert on foreign policy. Maybe in the future "American Idol" contestants will give five minute oral presentations on George Kennan. My guess is that it's part of the same American idiocy that bestows sainthood on the relatives of people unlucky enough to be in a building when it was hit by an airplane. That makes about as much sense as appointing me to head GM's car safety division because I got in a fender bender, or worse yet my relatives and friends. For some of those friends the solution would be to install bongs in every car, because everybody knows that when you're stoned you drive really, really slow.
Related note: it's been brought up over and over that Africa and Asia were in the same boat in terms of being rural economies facing the challenge of industrialization in the 20th century, but that Asia was able to claw its way into the first world while Africa is still mired in the third. I wonder what the state of the literature is in detailing the differences the approaches countries on the two continents went through in modernizing themselves. One story I heard on NPR a few years ago speculated that part of the difference was in educational spending: Asian countries invested in primary education (termed in the US as "K-12") while African countries invested in high prestige universities.
Interestingly enough, isn't affirmative action in the US simply a transplanted version of the inferior, repudiated African model? What's the point of getting disadvantaged kids to college if the primary schools they came from are wrecks which are incapable of providing the basic education their students will presumably need to succeed in a higher education setting?
Finally, could it be that nobody feels sorry for the Chinese because they talk funny and play an inferior variant of checkers?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Holy Crap!
I'm old, I'm jaded and I don't startle easily. That said I experienced a moment of genuine surprise today. The occasion?
Mission of Burma's available as a download pack for Rock Band!
Now if only "Academy Fight Song" was available as a download my life would be complete.
BTW, it's a novel experience playing Rock Band with people who are much younger (read poorer) than you. The little savages have no taste in music. "Waaaah, waaaah!" they'd cry. "We want to play something that's not the Pixies. The Pixies suck!"
Fortunately since I'm older and wiser I was able to set them straight. I'm the guy that owns the console and the game, so it's my vicarious fantasies of rock stardom that we're going to be living out. And those fantasies have nothing to do with Bobby Spears or whatever her name is.
And the Pixies rock.
Mission of Burma's available as a download pack for Rock Band!
Now if only "Academy Fight Song" was available as a download my life would be complete.
BTW, it's a novel experience playing Rock Band with people who are much younger (read poorer) than you. The little savages have no taste in music. "Waaaah, waaaah!" they'd cry. "We want to play something that's not the Pixies. The Pixies suck!"
Fortunately since I'm older and wiser I was able to set them straight. I'm the guy that owns the console and the game, so it's my vicarious fantasies of rock stardom that we're going to be living out. And those fantasies have nothing to do with Bobby Spears or whatever her name is.
And the Pixies rock.
Mmm Mmm Good, Part Deux
Brewed with water from an underground stream, for even more deliciousness than normal.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Betty Boop, Betty Boop
I ended up watching a lot of animation for some reason this weekend, catching both "Coraline" and the program of Oscar nominated shorts. "Coraline" may have its deficiencies in the story department but the movie itself was clearly a labor of love, and I enjoyed the quality of its stop motion animation. The giant nerd glasses the theater handed out for the movie's 3D effects didn't hurt either.
On the other hand the Oscar nominated shorts were a terrible disappointment. If that's the best the world of short animation can offer these days the genre needs to be put out of its misery with a bullet in its head. The program swung back and forth between sentimental treacle ("Lavatory Love Story") and inferior rip-offs of old Warner Brothers cartoons (some Pixar piece of crap about a rabbit and a magician). Pixar, if you can't beat the work of underpaid, overworked factory slaves from 60 years ago when you've got a $100,000,000 budget, what's the point of even trying?
The sole exception was a short piece from Japan, "La Maison en Petits Cubes". (I guess "Tsumiki no Ie" wasn't good enough.) I found it to be beautiful, sad and understated which means it'll probably lose to some mediocre crap about a hungry rabbit refusing to do magic tricks.
On the other hand the Oscar nominated shorts were a terrible disappointment. If that's the best the world of short animation can offer these days the genre needs to be put out of its misery with a bullet in its head. The program swung back and forth between sentimental treacle ("Lavatory Love Story") and inferior rip-offs of old Warner Brothers cartoons (some Pixar piece of crap about a rabbit and a magician). Pixar, if you can't beat the work of underpaid, overworked factory slaves from 60 years ago when you've got a $100,000,000 budget, what's the point of even trying?
The sole exception was a short piece from Japan, "La Maison en Petits Cubes". (I guess "Tsumiki no Ie" wasn't good enough.) I found it to be beautiful, sad and understated which means it'll probably lose to some mediocre crap about a hungry rabbit refusing to do magic tricks.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Obama's Sister Souljah Moment?
President Obama's choice of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration has been received by the gay and lesbian community as a slap in the face, made even more painful by the passage of Proposition 8 in Warren's home state of California. As a political move it's undeniably shrewd. Obama ran on a platform that stressed cooperation across the aisle. Putting Warren front and center at his inauguration will allow him to reinforce his reputation as a uniter.
But I also have to wonder if Warren qualifies as Obama's Sister Souljah moment. The simple fact is that while the gay and lesbian coalition is an important piece of the Democratic political machine it is also a political liability across most of the country. By distancing himself from them, by publicly inviting their attacks, Obama gains some useful space away from a group that mainstream America views as radical and extreme--and not in a good Mountain Dew sense. The gay and lesbian community is probably in for even more disappointment if they're hoping for some sort of presidential backing for gay marriage--poll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans oppose state supported gay marriage and it's a polical non-starter.
The most radical of Obama's supporters are about to learn a hard lesson as they discover that the primary mission of any politician is not to institute reform or change, but to be re-elected.
But I also have to wonder if Warren qualifies as Obama's Sister Souljah moment. The simple fact is that while the gay and lesbian coalition is an important piece of the Democratic political machine it is also a political liability across most of the country. By distancing himself from them, by publicly inviting their attacks, Obama gains some useful space away from a group that mainstream America views as radical and extreme--and not in a good Mountain Dew sense. The gay and lesbian community is probably in for even more disappointment if they're hoping for some sort of presidential backing for gay marriage--poll after poll has shown that the majority of Americans oppose state supported gay marriage and it's a polical non-starter.
The most radical of Obama's supporters are about to learn a hard lesson as they discover that the primary mission of any politician is not to institute reform or change, but to be re-elected.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Bubba Ho-Tep
I finally caught this on cable a while back. The film had an interesting life on teh interwebz, first inciting hysteria among the Ain't-It-Cool nerd crowd ("Bruce Campbell in a film about Elvis fighting a mummy? Sweet!") before moving on to disappointment and a general consensus that the film was a bit of a let down.
Curiously the film is one of those movies that I feel respect for more than outright affection. Campbell plays an Elvis who has gone to seed, aged into senescence and is packed off to a rest home to die. He's got a cancerous tumor on his "pecker" but the nursing home staff have decided against treatment or even informing their patient about his condition, figuring that he'll die of old age long before the cancer gets him. There's a mummy, but the heart of the film isn't Campbell's eventual (anti-)climatic confrontation with the monster. Instead it lies in a scene where a blond piece of fluff comes by to dispose of her father's belongings after he's died and flings his WWII medals into the trash.
It's been a long time since I read the Joe Lansdale short story the movie's based on and I can't remember if that scene is from the original source material, but I like to think it is. And I like to think that the writer/directory, Don Coscarelli of "Phantasm" fame, chose to keep it in the movie even if the result was a film that was too low key and melancholy to be a hit with the fan boys. The movie's got some issues with pacing and it doesn't quite work, but at least I get the impression that everybody involved with it got to keep their self-respect.
Curiously the film is one of those movies that I feel respect for more than outright affection. Campbell plays an Elvis who has gone to seed, aged into senescence and is packed off to a rest home to die. He's got a cancerous tumor on his "pecker" but the nursing home staff have decided against treatment or even informing their patient about his condition, figuring that he'll die of old age long before the cancer gets him. There's a mummy, but the heart of the film isn't Campbell's eventual (anti-)climatic confrontation with the monster. Instead it lies in a scene where a blond piece of fluff comes by to dispose of her father's belongings after he's died and flings his WWII medals into the trash.
It's been a long time since I read the Joe Lansdale short story the movie's based on and I can't remember if that scene is from the original source material, but I like to think it is. And I like to think that the writer/directory, Don Coscarelli of "Phantasm" fame, chose to keep it in the movie even if the result was a film that was too low key and melancholy to be a hit with the fan boys. The movie's got some issues with pacing and it doesn't quite work, but at least I get the impression that everybody involved with it got to keep their self-respect.
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