Old School TV

I was at my mom's house over the weekend and managed to catch two things on television that I had not seen in years. You know, not since I was a lower case g.

The first was the Japanese children's cartoon Ikkyusan. First let me say that I had no idea that the Japanese television station NGN is kind of like MTV now, they have a billion stations. Ikkyusan I believe currently airs locally on either NGN2 or NGN3. When I was younger they would play the cartoon on the original station and I would catch it on occasion at my grandma's house. This was back in the early 80's and even then the cartoon was being re-aired. Looking back it seems quite odd that this cartoon about a young zen monk aired contemporaneously with the likes of My Little Pony and Thundercats. I only caught the second half of this weekend's episode, but I did catch the most memorable part of the cartoon for me, the end credits. Just like I remembered it, a little teru teru bozu hanging in wind and a song about Ikkyusan writing home to his mum. See for yourself:



Now if I could only track down a copy of the old series Oshin, I could really get nostalgic about Japanese television. (Note to Beyonce: if you ever find yourself hard pressed to write yet another independent lady type song, watch this series for inspiration).

The other thing that I caught airing over the weekend is Twilight Zone: The Movie. Since my sister and I used to always manage to catch it on TV when we were younger and I've never seen it on the big screen, I still consider this old school TV. After all these years the movie still manages to freak the heck out of me. Well, most of it does, the exception being the Kick the Can segment. That one is just sadly poignant. The worst tale is It's a Good Life, the one about Anthony, the boy with supernatural powers. The part that really freaks me out is when Anthony sends his sister into cartoonland, where she is supposedly trapped forever. Seems kind of lame, right? Well it is, until you realize that his sister is played by Nancy Cartwright, who became the voice of Bart Simpson for a billion years. See, she really was trapped in cartoonland, 4 eva!!!

You may possibly consider reading (no pressure or anything): The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

I started reading The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall just before leaving for Boston and finished it up on the return flight home. I kind of have mixed feelings about the book and can't really give it a whole-hearted endorsement (thus the "you may possibly consider reading" post title). It's kind of a mixed bag in that there are parts of the book that I thought were really fantastic and other parts that just fell completely flat for me. But before I get too deep into my review, let me tell you a little about the book itself.

The title of the book, The Raw Shark Texts, is both a play on the Rorschach (Inkblot) Test and a reference to the book's storyline. Steven Hall has commented that one reason he choose the title was because he saw the book in itself as a Rorschach Test. Essentially the story is multilayered, it can been seen in a philosophical or psychological sense, it can be read as a piece of science fiction, a love story or an examination of the use of language (albeit an abstract/metaphorical one). Like the famed inkblot test, you see what you want to in the story. Unfortunately, the book's storyline is one in which if you give too much away then you've kind of ruined the whole thing. I will say that the main character of the novel, Eric Sanderson, awakes one day devoid of any memory of his life. As the plot unfolds, it becomes unclear if Sanderson is suffering from a psychological disorder or if there is some other cause of his faltering memory. He begins receiving cryptic clues from his former self (deemed the first Eric Sanderson) and goes on an eventful journey to piece together who he was and who he now is.

The novel is quite inventive in its use of language and is almost in a genre of its own (the term "genre-defying" is used so frequently nowadays that it seems to have become a genre of its own. Ironic). My problem with the book was that there were points where the story lost cohesion. The novel seemed to be an obvious first effort and I got the sense that Steven Hall thought this might have been his one and only shot at making a literary impact. Thus, he put all of his ideas into the book, with varying effects. There is a well known quote about fashion that is attributed to Coco Chanel, she said before you leave the house, you should always take one thing off. I feel like maybe Hall could have benefited from similar advice.

Here is a short passage from the book as read by Tilda Swinton (it's one of the better passages):



Just a few final points:

1) I am in an obvious minority in my ambivalence over the book, Hall has become somewhat of a literary darling so perhaps this book really is amazing and I'm just not sophisticated enough to appreciate it.

2) As I was reading the novel I kept coming across what seemed to be musical references. Eric Sanderson for instance shares his name with the bassist for the group Pela. There are two cats in the story named Ian and Gavin, you know, like the Sutherland Brothers. And another character goes by the name Mycroft Ward. Or maybe M. Ward? For a awhile I thought it was just my musical leanings creeping up on me, then I came across this article posted on the music blog largehearted boy. Audiophiles, take note. Kind of makes me want to read it again to look for the musical references.

Christmas!!!!

Thus far, I've tried to maintain some restraint regarding my excitement over Christmas. It was a little touch and go there for awhile, however. About a week and a half ago I changed the ringtones on my phone, I now wake up to Merry Christmas Darling by the Carpenters and my incoming calls are signaled by Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is You. Yes, you read correctly, Mariah Carey. But can I help it if Mimi sings fantastic Christmas songs? Like Heather say...don't hate, congratulate.

In any case, since Thanksgiving is officially over and it is nearly December 1st, all bets are off. It's officially time to start getting into the Christmas spirit. And what better way then a reading of Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris? For me, it's just not Christmas without hearing Sedaris read from Holidays On Ice. Sure you can read the book, but his reading is soooo much better. His vocal intonations and nasally voice make all the difference. Listen here. I will personally guaranty that listening to Sedaris regale you with his stories of being Crumpet the Elf (later to be known as Blisters the Elf) at Macy's Santaland will get you in the holiday spirit.

So far this Christmas is lookin' pretty good. Heather and I are the official game planners for our office Christmas party (it's kind of a twofer in that we don't have to participate in the games and we get to have the partners and staff make fools of themselves. It's kind of like an extra Christmas bonus!). I won't go into detail just yet, but the games should be both ridiculous and fantastic. I will say that we did decide to nix the "guess the bald spot" game. Although, the balding gentlemen in our firm did voluntarily have pictures of their bald spots taken at the last Christmas party (yes, alcohol was served), so I don't think anyone would have taken too much offense.

Kind of bummed that we did not find out about the theme and deadline for the Honolulu Hale Wreath decorating contest until the last minute. The theme this year is Holiday Heroes. Come on, they are just begging for someone to enter a Wreath made of holiday sandwiches. If only I had known sooner, that someone could have been me.

Let the merriment begin!!

PS. If I worked at Santaland my elf name would be Freckles and I would tell people to step on my magic star and see Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Stuffs

So here is a look at some other Boston related stuffs. I'm getting kinda tired of posting about it individually.

The pups:





The foliage:

This totally reminded me of the dead duck day from About a Boy. I was on the lookout for kids with loaves of bread.







Along the Freedom Trail:

Bunker Hill



Took a walk through the North End. My mom was a little slow on the uptake here, at one point she said "so, the North End is predominately Italian, huh?" Yes, yes it is.



Stood in line and got some Cannoli from Modern Pastry. Turns out, I'm not so much of a Cannoli person.



If you ever decide to walk the Freedom Trail, I'd say a good 70% of it is cemeteries. FYI.



Salem:

Took a day trip to Salem, overall it was kind of meh. I did get to be a pirate though. Albeit a pirate who appears to have a shrunken head.



They had a Bewitched statue (Maggie!). I was kind of disappointed that they did not have a Stevie Nicks statute as well. Also, the Salem Wax Museum, not that impressive. The wax figures are on a platform so all you can basically do is look at them. You can't take photos with the figures or anything, which was disappointing. I was hoping to get a candid of me and Goody Proctor, like we was all hanging out at the clubs and stuff. ;)



Visited the Peabody Museum which I had high expectations for, but again turned out to be kind of meh. There were a few things that I enjoyed though.



Say hi to Jizo (Heather!)





We stopped into a bookstore before leaving Salem and I think this is likely to be what my apartment will eventually turn into.



Christmas:

Before we left Boston my sister put up her Christmas decorations. CHRISTMAS!!! EEEEEEEEEEE!!!





Like I said, Stuffs:





They had these chocolates at Ikea, I'm sure it's probably not pronounced this way, but I just love having these around so that when someone does something extraordinary I can say damnnnnn, and hand them one of these candies.



I had to take a photo of these shopping basket/cart things that they have at supermarkets in Boston. I was captivated by them and much to the embarrassment of my family, insisted on using them. They are like little shopping baskets, but with wheels and a long hand so you can pull it after you. I guaranty it will be a long time before shopping basket technology has another breakthrough like this.



Ikea, how I love thee. I have their latest catalog and I just keep looking at it over and over again longingly. I am a complete sucker for mid-century modern Eames style aesthetic. Why we do not have one here, I do not know. I was completely excited when I saw they were adding on a furniture store at Ala Moana called Design Within Reach. I thought great, maybe this will be really great design at an affordable price. No, the within reach part of their name means design that is within an arm's length away from you. Come on, unless you created the Barcelona Chair, you really should not be selling it for that price. And if I ever did scrape up enough money to buy something from your store, I guaranty what I purchase will not be within arms length of my guests. It will be partitioned off behind a velvet rope, perhaps with a little placard. But I digress...



FIN

JFK Library and Museum- Wicked Awesome!!

My favorite thing about this trip to Boston, aside from The Decemberist concert, was visiting the JFK Library and Museum. I can't express to you how amazing it was, I could have spent days in there looking at everything.

The museum moves along chronologically, so the first section showcases pieces that are pre-presidency; family photos of him as a young boy, report cards (he got a D in History as a kid!), college papers, and items related to his military service. There is also a 20 minute documentary of Kennedy's life leading up to the DNC wherein he is officially nominated as the Democratic candidate. The film was made especially for the museum and was put together really well, it was probably my favorite thing about the place.

As you move further along in the museum, you move into a corridor with a series of rooms that showcase some watershed moments in Kennedy's run for President. You can stop and watch his debate with Nixon or, if you move further along, watch his acceptance speech. There is also a room with the old red and blue state map that reflects the state by state returns for the election. I still can't believe that at one time Texas was Democratic and California, Washington and Oregon were Republican! Can that be right?!? Whoa JFK museum, you just blew my mind! My sister and I were both really impressed that along the corridor there were a series of newsstands from the national papers that took you through the chronology of events leading up to the victory. At the end of the hallway were all the headlines generated on inauguration day.

Next were a series of rooms showcasing items and events that occurred during JFK's presidency. They had a rooms devoted to political cartoons of the time, transcripts of his press conferences and one of his to do list (it was amazing how varied and substantive the things on the list were). There were also recreations of both JFK and Robert Kennedy's offices. My sister could not get over all of the gift that visiting dignitary's brought for the Kennedy family- a gold purse encrusted with emeralds and diamonds, or a six foot tall ivory tusk carved with the lineage of ancient African tribes. You know, small trinkets.

I really loved all the pieces dealing with Jackie O- the dresses, her travel journal, her famous white house tour. Did you know she attended the Sorbonne and worked as a photojournalist at the Washington Herald before she met John? She also loved drawing and poetry and would doodle little cartoons. Below is one she did making light of their life on the campaign trail. That's John washing his socks in the sink at their hotel room!



She also corresponded with Ludwig Bemelmans, the author of the Madeline books. Here is a postcard he sent to Carolyn:



There was also a piece of the Berlin wall, here a photo of my mom next to it:



For some reason this place had a lot of scaffolding:



I'm going to kind of glaze over the footage and news releases regarding the assassination because if I think about it too much I will get choked up. So instead, here are a few quotes that I loved:





If anyone watched Ted Kennedy's speech this year at the DNC, you might recognize the quote above. He ended this year's speech with the same words (after promising to continue battling against his brain tumor and to return to the senate floor to cast his vote for a universal health care plan- his lifelong work). Talk about getting choked up...

Anyway, what I can't really put into words is the feeling the museum evokes. I've always imagined that the Kennedy period in history was a time where hope and optimism reigned supreme and civil rights and human decency were paramount. You can't help get a sense of that by walking the halls of the library. I'm hoping that every time I put on my Youth For Kennedy t-shirt I can replicate some of that old Camelot magic.

The New England Holocaust Memorial

One of the stops along Boston's Freedom Trail is the New England Holocaust Memorial. The Memorial consists of six glass pillars atop a granite walkway. The six pillars are of significance and symbolically represent each of the six Nazi camps as well as the six million Jews who lost their lives. Others see the six pillars as a menorah or an eternal candlelight vigil for those who have passed.



The pillars themselves are illuminated at night from top to bottom and a metal grate is located at the bottom of each pillar. The grates release a stream of steam which wafts through the glass column.





If you look at the walls of the pillars, you find numbers etched in the glass. The memorial contains six million numbers which represent each of the victims who lost their lives during the Holocaust.



Contained on the granite walkway that leads through the pillars were factual statement about the Holocaust and on the column walls themselves are personal statements from some of the victims. I found this one to be especially touching:



It reads:

"ILSE, A CHILDHOOD FRIEND OF MINE,
once found a raspberry in the camp
and carried it in her pocket all day
to present to me that night on a leaf.

IMAGINE A WORLD in which
your entire possession is
one raspberry and
you give it to your friend"

Harvard and a NSFW Pooh?

While in Boston, we decided to take a walk around the Harvard campus. I had been there before to check out the Natural History Museum, but never really walked through the campus.



Below is a picture of the Widener Library. Apparently, the library was "built with a gift from Eleanor Elkins Widener, it is a memorial to her son, Harry, Class of 1907, an enthusiastic young bibliophile who perished aboard the Titanic". We also took a quick walk through the law library, which is huge. In comparison, I would approximate that our Supreme Court Law Library would likely fit in one of their bathrooms. It's okay though, I like my law libraries to have a homey feel to it.



While on the campus, we also came across this terrific find. A Pooh house. Awwwwwww.


But wait, it looks like there is something behind the door...


Is that...?!? No, couldn't be?!? Let's take a closer look...


Yup! That's Hasselhoff alright. As Pooh said “You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

Pooh knows how to get what he wants.