Each event has a different theme, revolving around a past era. Previously, Steam Garden did a Meiji-themed party — a fascinating time when Japan was opening its doors to the West, and fusing Victorian fashion with traditional kimonos and obis. This time, the code word was Celtic Fantasy. Luke describes it as “a blend of industry, fantasy, and epic adventure set to a soundtrack of exciting tribal and Celtic music.” -
Japanese Steampunk, complete with bagpipes, medieval food, fire dancers and wood elves.
posted by Artw
on May 18, 2013 -
7 comments
Jun Togawa is sort of like what you'd get if you crossed Kate Bush and Mike Patton. Togawa, who became known in Japanese culture
after appearing in a bidet commercial, was half of the electro-cabaret band
Guernica, which sometimes sounded
very classical and sometimes sounded
very new wave and sometimes
much stranger. Somewhat more straightforward is her rock outfit
Yapoos, which similarly varies
quite a bit in
sound and
style. Her solo work, unsurprisingly, is quite
melodramatic, with some very interesting
arrangements, both
parodically poppy and
funky. I particularly like her covers of
All Tomorrow's Parties by the Velvet Underground, Brigitte Fontaine's
Comme à la Radio, and – weirdly –
Pachelbel's Canon.
posted by Rory Marinich
on Apr 21, 2013 -
14 comments
Wrestling Out Of The Olympics - The Gods Must Be Crazy Mad
The whole lucrative sham of it all was exposed once again this week when the executive board of the IOC — Informal Motto: "Me Some Too, Yes?" — recommended that wrestling be dropped as an Olympic sport in the 2020 Summer Games, which are supposed to be held in Istanbul, Tokyo, or Madrid, depending on whose checks clear first, I believe. According to the board, wrestling is no longer a "core sport" in the Olympics and it will have to petition for inclusion in 2020 along with, and I am not making this up, sport climbing and wakeboarding. This is terrific. Why don't we just hold the Olympics in an REI outlet store somewhere?
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns
on Mar 19, 2013 -
94 comments
Methane hydrates, also known as clathrates, are crystalline ice structures which trap molecules of natural gas. They are
fairly ubiquitous in near-shore seafloor sediments, where methane from decaying organic matter is trapped in an ice structure at low temperature and high pressure. Though methane hydrates are believed to contain substantially more natural gas than conventional deposits, extraction of the natural gas was thought to be impractical.
Until now.
[more inside]
posted by irrelephant
on Mar 12, 2013 -
35 comments
Donald Richie , American author, journalist, critic and expert on Japan, dies at 88.
Smilingly excluded here in Japan, politely stigmatised, I can from my angle attempt only objectivity, since my subjective self will not fit the space I am allotted . . . how fortunate I am to occupy this niche with its lateral view. In America I would be denied this place. I would live on the flat surface of a plain. In Japan, from where I am sitting, the light falls just right – I can see the peaks and valleys, the crags and crevasses.
-- from The Japan Journals, 1947-2004
[more inside]
posted by Ice Cream Socialist
on Feb 19, 2013 -
23 comments
So, I’ve been doing my research. Because there are so many prefectures and so many famous foods, I’m going to be breaking this article up into two parts. One for North, East, and Central prefectures of Japan, and one for West and South prefectures of Japan. At the end of the second part, we’ll also include a printout that has a map with numbers on all the prefectures corresponding to a list down below it. That way you can print this out, take it with you, and go on a rompy food excursion in Japan.
posted by infini
on Feb 6, 2013 -
17 comments
"Japanese cinema’s preeminent taboo buster,
Nagisa Oshima directed, between 1959 and 1999, more than twenty groundbreaking features. For Oshima, film was a form of activism, a way of shaking up the status quo. Uninterested in the traditional Japanese cinema of such popular filmmakers as Kurosawa, Ozu, and Naruse, Oshima focused not on classical themes of good and evil or domesticity but on outcasts, gangsters, murderers, rapists, sexual deviants, and the politically marginalized." The great Japanese director
Nagisa Oshima passed away at the age of 80 last week. Appreciations from the
Guardian,
Slate,
Fandor,
Telegraph,
NY Times,
AV Club, and a few in-depth articles over at
Senses of Cinema and
Film Comment.
posted by HumanComplex
on Jan 25, 2013 -
11 comments
Today is
Coming of Age Day in Japan, when everyone who has turned twenty in the past year simultaneously gains the right to smoke, drink, and vote. Wherever you are, why not celebrate with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's
(previously) latest video,
furisodeshon?
posted by 23
on Jan 13, 2013 -
47 comments
On the flat top of a steep hill in a distant corner of northern Japan lies the tomb of an itinerant shepherd who, two millennia ago, settled down there to grow garlic. He fell in love with a farmer’s daughter named Miyuko, fathered three kids and died at the ripe old age of 106. In the mountain hamlet of Shingo, he’s remembered by the name Daitenku Taro Jurai.
The rest of the world knows him as Jesus Christ. (previously)
posted by Chrysostom
on Jan 11, 2013 -
62 comments
light AMPLIFICATION - Is the color of future of your future neon pink? Is the language Japanese? Are the city's an eternal nighttime of airbrushed martini glasses, glossy red lips and consumer electronics? Do you jam with the console cowboys in cyberspace? Then this is the tumblr for you. [via
mefi projects]
posted by Artw
on Dec 29, 2012 -
44 comments
With their brutal, simple riffs and aggressive, fast tempos, Accept were one of the top metal bands of the early '80s, and a major influence on the development of thrash. Led by the unique vocal stylings of screeching banshee Udo Dirkschneider, the band forged an instantly recognizable sound and was notorious as one of the decade's fiercest live acts. -
AllMusic
posted by Egg Shen
on Nov 21, 2012 -
29 comments
The world record for
Flash Anzan was broken this year at the 2012 All Japan Soroban [abacus] Championship. Competitors in Flash Anzan sum up 15 3-digit numbers that are displayed in turn within a set time. The record is now 1.70 seconds, which means that each number is displayed for just over 0.1s. Here is a video of a "slow"
1.85 seconds seconds where the numbers are barely readable.
[more inside]
posted by milkb0at
on Nov 2, 2012 -
31 comments
Ever wonder what happened to Fukushima Storage Unit #4? You remember,
the one filled with 1,500 wet stored and combustible fuel rods that threaten a total of ~134 million curies of radioactive cesium137 and, at least as of last April, seemed to be in maybe not such great shape? (
PREVIOUSLY) This August, TEPCO
released a comprehensive and easily understandable report on the condition of the structure as well as measures being done to both reinforce it against likely earthquakes and ultimately remove the fuel rods, which are still hot enough to require wet storage elsewhere (PDF). On the other hand, Kohei Murata, the former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland who
had the attention of the world during the crisis,
remains both unimpressed and eschatological.
posted by Blasdelb
on Oct 23, 2012 -
24 comments
