Japonisme

The Washington Post just posted a dual review of two books discussing the impact that Japanese art had on the European art world during the late 19th century, as Japanese art began to flow into the West following the ‘opening’ of Japan by Perry and the subsequent Meiji restoration.

Japonisme is filled with firsthand observations from a slew of artists such as Renoir and Monet. The author pinpoints the relationship between James McNeill Whistler’s oil paintings, especially his “Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony,” and Torii Kiyonaga’s work. A woodcut print of a group of Japanese courtesans entertaining a customer is juxtaposed with Whistler’s painting of Western women dressed in kimonos: The composition and the perspective, with its view of the water, were clearly inspired by Kiyonaga’s print, which, in fact, Whistler owned.

JAPONISME
Cultural Crossings Between Japan and the West
By Lionel Lambourne
Phaidon. 240 pp. $69.95

THE ORIGINS OF L’ART NOUVEAU
The Bing Empire
Edited by Gabriel P. Weisberg, Edwin Becker and Evelyne Possémé
Mercatorfonds. 295 pp. $69.95

The Zimmerli Art Museum, located on the campus of my alma mater, Rutgers University, has a well put together collection also entitled Japonisme, which primarily focuses on art created in France under the influence of Japanese works. I recommend that anyone at Rutgers or in the vicinity check out this exhibit (I believe admission is free, but that may only be for students. Or I may be wrong.) Unfortunately, they have but a single image from it online.

Japonisme:

Comprising turn-of-the-last-century European and American works on paper and ceramics as well as related Japanese art, this collection reveals the strong influence of the art of Japan on the art of the West and in so doing reflects the pervasive cross-cultural interchange which took place between Japan and the West beginning in 1854 when, after 200 years of isolation, Japan opened its doors to the West.

The many Adam Richardses of the world

I figure this is OK to post since my full name is right on the sidebar of this page, so here you go. Ever Google yourself? I have, and I’ve noticed that there are some pretty successful Adam Richardses out there:

The heavyweight boxer (“Adam Richards (9-1) outpointed John Dixon of Gautier in a four round heavyweight fight.” Way to go, man!)

The local pro wrestler. Holy crap I’m such a badass! Check this out:

Name: Adam Richards

Nickname: The Chosen One

Faction: The Texas Mafia (w/ Kyle and Michelle Richards)

Hometown: San Antonio, Texas

Entrance: The arena goes dark and the lights begin to flash red as “New Abortion” by Slipknot hits the BlazenTron. Flames explode when the first yell is heard and when the first lyrics are heard, Adam Richards appears on the stage. After staring at the crowd, Adam makes his way to the ring, slides inside and moves to the far right corner of the ring to pose. Adam then jumps down, turns around and waits.

Fighting Style: Brawler

Persona: Adam Richards loves to scare the fans with all the painful moves in his repertoire. He hates the fans and everything they represent.

Signature Moves:
– Tornado DDT
– Frog Splash
– Standing Shooting Star Press

Finishers:
– Pure Impact (Swinging Sidewalk Slam)
– The Apocalypse (Electric Chair Drop)

Quote: “I live for the thrill of the violent moment!”

Superstar History: Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Adam Richards, who was trying to follow in his brother Kyle’s footsteps, tried to find a job in the wrestling business with no success. Even though Adam was a virtual unknown in the business, the Epic Wrestling Organization gave Adam a chance to compete with their company. It was on November 13, 2004, that Adam Richards worked his first match for the eWo against Devin Washington and Shane Nitro and impressed, even though it was in a losing effort. After a long wait in-between matches, Adam Richards got his first chance at eWo gold in a battle royal on December 22, 2004. The match was for the eWo National Championship. Adam lost the match, yet again impressed the company in a losing effort. On January 5, 2005, Adam Richards would again have a chance for more gold, this time for the eWo Gutz and Glory Championship. However, before the show took place, the company was bought by Kevin Void and has not had a show since. Tired of waiting, Adam decided to try his luck elsewhere and joined the Blazenwing Wrestling Federation to team with his brother Kyle and sister Michelle as the Texas Mafia.

Title History:
– BWF Hardcore Champion (1)

Way to be a champion!

The British Stuntman:

FIT AND CAPABLE TO UNDERTAKE ALL ASPECTS OF STUNT WORK, WILLING TO LEARN NEW TECHNIQUES.

Fight Director: Bugsy, Lion Witch Wardrobe, Man in the Moon, Team One

Special Skills: Twenty five years experience in the fighting arts both teaching and studying.
British National Martial Art Award for coaching.
Founded own style KUEN TAO.
Gymnastic instructor, personnel fitness instructor, Fencing instructor.
Coach to two British martial Art Champions in Kickboxing and Grappling.
Full Driving Licence including Fork lift and motorbike.
Fight Director.
Chinese Lion/Dragon Dance.
TRAINED IN HONG KONG.
First Aider.

Sweet! I need to get this guy to teach me how to take a punch.

The Australian Rollerblade Hockey player (of the “Snipers”). Lots of athletes, damn. I am such a dork, the only “sport” I play is Dance Dance Revolution.



The Australian commercial landscaper with a TV show. Lame!

The Utah engineering student:

Adam Richards dreams of designing or flying helicopters.

US: If you were a superhero, what would your name be? Why?

Richards: Super Dusty. Dusty was my nickname as a kid.

US: What is your pet peeve?

Richards: People that park next to the curb when their “only going to be there for a second”.

US: If you could travel anywhere where would you go? Why?

Richards: Alaska. It’s not crowded. I worked there for a summer and it’s really pretty.

US: What is your personal philosophy on life?

Richards: It’ll be all right.

US: What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken?

Richards: Any number of the stunts I did as a kid. They were all death defying – BMX riding, walking the conduit across the ravine, jumping off buildings trying to fly.

US: What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Richards: Anything with a bunch of chocolate and caramel swirls.

US: If you could go on tour with a band, who would it be? Why?

Richards: Someone not on tour very long, I wouldn’t like it much.

US: If you had five hours of free time right now, and money was not an issue, what would you do?

Richards: Fly to Alaska and buy a plot of land. Then I’d figure out how to get back afterwards.

US: What were the last three books you chose to read?

Richards: “Fall of Baghdad,” “Ten Minutes to Normal” and “Plan of Attack.” They were just there at the library.

BOOOORING!!!! This guy can’t stop thinking about helicopters and Alaska… what gives?

OK, that’s enough for now… I’ll try and catalog some more Adam Richardses later.

Taike

An amusing article in the Taipei Times:

Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that the term Taike (台客) should be an adjective for young Taiwanese men who possess clear and logical thinking, and who speak eloquently.

“When the noun and adjective Taike is used, usually people are calling or describing somebody who is not elegant or has bad taste in clothes and no sense of style, perhaps even in the way they talk. I hope that we can turn this upside down and make it all around,” Hsieh said.
[…]
Taike is a recent popular noun and adjective which media often have used to describe somebody who gives the impression of having bad taste in many respects, such as the way they dress, their speech and behavior.

Originally, Taike was first used in 1990 in Taiwan among teenaers, but the term did not become widespread until recent years.

Stereotypical Taike dye their hair different colors, wear colorful shirts and baggy pants all the time irrespective of the occasion, talk a lot, drink too much, curse constantly, chew betel nut and speaks Mandarin with a heavy Taiwanese accent.

I first heard this term when I went on a trip to Penghu a few weeks ago with a group of Taiwanese when a couple of the girls were using it to tease one of the guys on the trip. Interestingly, despite what the article says, I only heard the term ‘tai,’ not the longer ‘taike.’ Still, the description in the article fits what I heard. According to the girls I was with, there are two basic types of ‘tai.’

First is the type who just doesn’t know/care how to dress or act: flip flops, a sloppy and vaguely bow-legged way of walking, exercise shorts, probably a betel-nut chewer. Second: the kind who thinks they know how to dress, but is tragically and comically mistaken. There may not be any exact equivalent in America, but perhaps if you meditate a little on terms like ‘redneck‘ or ‘guido‘ you may begin to get at least a kind of relativistic sense of what’s going on.

Does anyone out there have any good examples, either in words or photos?

Roll call: who can read Japanese?

The other Horie?

I’m just wondering how useful it would be for me to post Japanese-language links on this site. Take the following for instance:

Nippon News Network — Low-res videos of Japanese news stories. No ads, good selection.

Asahi Net News — Higher res, but the high res videos don’t seem to load well on my DSL.

The Diet NOW — A daily column by “citizen journalist” Hideo Hamada covering events in the Japanese Diet. His analysis has been indispensible for me recently as I try and understand developments leading up to the election.

Those are some things I’ve been reading. I’m interested to know how many people are out there who are like me (English native speaker who speaks/reads Japanese) and care about sites like that. Let me know!

Yukio Mishima’s lost film version of “Patriotism” found

The Japan Times reports that the film version of Yukio Mishima‘s famous short story “Patriotism,” thought to have been destroyed by his wife following his suicide, has now been found.

Mishima’s widow, Yoko, who died in 1995, was believed to have destroyed the original along with all copies of the film.

But the negative was found in a wooden box by Hiroaki Fujii, producer of the 30-minute black-and-white film, according to publisher Shinchosha Co.

Fujii had persuaded Yoko, who pulled all copies of the film from theaters and burned them after Mishima’s suicide in 1970, to hold onto the original.

The film includes scenes that foreshadow Mishima’s suicide in 1970 at the Ground Self-Defense Force’s regional headquarters in Tokyo’s Ichigaya District.

A character in the film, a lieutenant involved in the Feb. 26 Incident, a failed 1936 military coup, commits hara-kiri.

Mishima also committed hara-kiri at the GSDF regional headquarters after calling on officers to launch a coup d’etat.

I managed to find a digital copy of the story from a dead website with the help of google cache, and I’ve mirrored it here.

Patriotism, by Yukio Mishima

The most badass story I’ve seen all month

Scientists Rescued as Polar Bears Closed In

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Three unarmed Polish researchers stranded on a remote Arctic island were rescued as polar bears were closing in on them, officials said Wednesday.
[…]
The men were rescued by helicopter Tuesday after 15 hours shipwrecked at the edge of a tiny bay between two glaciers, he said.

The three were aboard the Polish research ship Horyzont when they set out in a small inflatable boat to pick up equipment on one of the islands.

“Their boat capsized, and they lost all their equipment and weapons,” Braaten told The Associated Press. He said they swam and clambered over chunks of floating ice to get to the island of Egdeoya.

Braaten said the ship repeatedly tried to send in another small boat to pick them up, but conditions were too rough. He said the ship finally used a harpoon canon to fire a rope to land, so it could send the researchers food and water. Then it called for help.

“They managed to start a fire, to keep warm and keep the polar bears away,” he said, explaining that the men used the spark plugs from their capsized craft’s outboard motor to get the fire going. The island has some dried grass and scrubby plants.
[…]
Polar bears have no natural enemies in their frozen domain and regard all other living things, including humans, as potential meals.

Funny stuff

I am so sick and tired of reading “serious” stuff that I need to laugh. Behold Something Awful, the site that points out all the ridiculous shit on the Internet:

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3136

This is their feature, FASHION SWAT, where two clever people trade riffs on bad fashion. Read it. Funny excerpts include:

Dr. Thorpe: God, I wish I was raised with a soul. The only thing we get to weep at is particularly affecting Sprint commercials with guys calling their dads to tell them “it’s a boy” or something. There’s no mystery in the world when you’re a white, secular, liberal shithead like you and me.

Zack: I’m pretty sure our soul is composed of a series of toy commercials that ran from 1984-1988. When we die Hasbro does with us what they please.

Dr. Thorpe: I can’t recite the Lord’s Prayer, but I can remember the tune to the “My Buddy” jingle. “My buddy, my buddy, my buddy, my buddy… my buddy and me!”

Zack: Yeah, Matt from X-E will start running a series of Pop Churches for our generation. “For penance say three ‘GI Joe’ themes and one ‘Jem and the Holograms’ theme.”

Dr. Thorpe: That would be truly outrageous.

Forgive the lack of formatting. I’m too tired to think.

My personal favorite is this one.

Tibet in exile

Following my post yesterday about the Dalai Lama’s upcoming visit to my former university of Rutgers, I thought this very recent Time Asia article describing his government in exile.

Around me, matrons from Lhasa are buying bread from vendors outside the temple, and walking their children to the Tibetan school down Temple Road. Recent escapees from Tibet are setting up tables and preparing lattes and chocolate cakes at the sleek Moonpeak Café and at Chonor House, the elegant guesthouse run by Tibet’s government-in-exile. Everywhere are monks in red, reciting sutras, sweeping their temple grounds, streaming into Internet cafés, and just whiling away their day in the shadow of Himalayan foothills, almost as if they were at home. What I’m seeing, improbably, is a vision of Tibet that you can never see these days in Tibet itself.

Also see a brief post I did earlier about Tibetans in Taiwan.

Dalai Lama coming to Rutgers

Reposted from an email I just got. If I were still in Jersey instead of Taiwan I would definitely try to finagle my way into this event for free. Take note of the fact that the Dalai Lama is here actually adressed by his personal name before his title-something that I believe I have never seen before. In fact, I didn’t even know his name.

It’s not too late to order tickets for the upcoming lecture by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet!

Rutgers will welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama, recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prizeand an internationally respected advocate of peace, to deliver a public lecture entitled “Peace, War, and Reconciliation” on Sunday, September 25, 2005, at 10:30 a.m. at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, NJ. Because of the great public interest in this major Rutgers event, we have secured a section of tickets reserved specifically for alumni, family and friends of Rutgers.

Tickets are available by phone or in person from the Rutgers Ticket Office. To purchase tickets, please contact the Rutgers Ticket Office at 866-445-4678 and ask for tickets in the “Alumni” section. The ticket office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m in the Louis Brown Athletic Center.

Please note that in order to secure seating in a group, all tickets in that group must be purchased in the same order. Payment by credit card (Visa, Mastercardor Discover) is expected at time of purchase. Those wishing to pay by check may submit a ticket request form with payment to the ticket office, but no orders will be held without payment. Ticket requests will be fulfilled when the check and completed form are received by the ticket office. A copy of the form is included at the bottom of this email. Anyone needing handicapped or wheelchair services (including deaf attendees requiring a view of sign language interpreters! ) should call the ticket office.

TICKET PRICES:

Tickets are $10 each.

Groups of 20 or more, traveling by school/charter bus, pay $7 per ticket (a bus parking pass will be required).

Children 2 and under are free.

Rutgers students pay $5 per ticket with a valid student ID (maximum of two $5 tickets per valid ID, additional tickets will be at the regular price of $10).

Please visit the web site (www.president.rutgers.edu/dalailama) for more details. This web site will be updated as more information becomes available. If you have already placed your order, please know that the Ticket Office will begin mailing tickets in late August. If you have other questions or needs, please reply to this email.

To print out an order form with which to submit a check payment for tickets, please click here: http://www.alumni.rutgers.edu/news/dalailama.htm.