Gilliam on Spielberg vs Kubrick (found via Boing Boing).

Now look for signs of fear in Spielberg on Kubrick:

That’s it, Steven? Categorise the movie (‘punk rock‘, somehow), belittle it for trying too hard and being easily dated (‘audacious … very dangerous for its time), and follow it up with your fantasy of increased crime rates (‘the headlines we now live with everyday’). That’s not artistic appreciation, Steven, that’s how to hide.

Excellent source of materials for anyone who has the potential to become homeless or develop a mental illness, is at risk of dementia, ever gets a debt they can’t pay, is able to get an infringement fine, could be a victim of a crime, might interact with police or maybe will receive a government benefit at some time.

From The New Yorker.

Not that there’s nothing wrong with commerce. Commerce is prostitution and prostitution is commerce – we know that. But when we think of art … our ideas come from more than a century ago, from people who did art for God, or from people who did art for the fantastically wealthy.

Democracy killed art. We don’t make art for gods or super-wealthy patrons anymore. We do it for ourselves. Unfortunately we have to make a living out of it.

zimmerman image appreciatively nicked from http://thebosshog.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/agreed/

Phrases that elicit a consideration that often wins out over competing considerations, whatever else is said. They have the strongest emotive punch; they hold the most sway.

The arguments I’m looking at would likely be on socio-political issues, or where there’s limited resources – arguments where opinions, beliefs and facts are commonly interchangeable.

Some examples:

• “stifling innovation”
• “the best interests of the child”
• “countering terrorism”
• “nanny state” (i.e., where a notion of freedom is thought to be curtailed by government regulation)
• “political correctness”
• “infringing human rights”
• “unconscionable behaviour”

I hope to use these phrases to analyse argument construction in newspaper opinion columns. The methodology is still being developed.

Suggestions welcome.

[image from tom gauld's flickr photostream]

[image thanks to http://carabaas.livejournal.com/1631114.html]

Me with a ‘car’ in the supermarket carpark. The picture is such poor quality because we were trying to capture the 50 circus clowns who’d just poured out of the back door. We learnt that good photography is all about timing.

A vending machine drink. Not at all unusual to name things this way. Really.

A shop in Kanazawa. No comment required here. Nor, they tell us, is one possible.

OK, so, chuck out your Western models of sexual orientation, I think. Japan doesn’t have gays like the west. Well, I qualify that: I’m pretty sure they have much the same desire and the manifestation thereof as other gays. But gender-identity? We’re not in Kansas anymore.

I’m in no position to give any remotely accurate analysis of how Japan views homosexuality. But, it is true Haado Gei and many others like him are all over the mainstream media. As some academic I googled put it:

On television, in particular, the homosexual man is represented as an okama. James Valentine says of the okama stereotype: ‘In media portrayals okama look like fakes, trying to be women but noticeably failing.’ Okama are represented as the opposite of ‘normal’ men. … Japanese television loves to present documentaries and ‘wide shows’ (live variety programmes) detailing ‘surprising’ things or events and okama are often featured on these shows either as subjects of investigation or as studio guests.
full article

Yet no-one, it seems, is publicly recognised as being ‘gei’. A Japanese person we know who thinks HG’s funny, when asked about his sexual preferences, said “Oh, but he’s not gay.” No justification; none needed. Of course he’s not gay; it’s just a pretence. It’s funny.

This is not, I think a repression of homosexuality, the way we’d view it at home. Instead (taking a step back), I think we view our lives in terms of how much we can get out of it. You decide what you want from life, and then follow it. Western homosexuality, with ideas about ‘acceptance’, follows the same line. Here (and in many countries where you don’t have the choice to ‘follow your dream’), I think life is viewed differently. Japanese people have a strong sense of community, and of working towards the common good. There is no other explanation I can see as to why teachers stay so late at work, or why coming home on time implies to your family that your job isn’t very important. Seriously – they chat and sleep and read the newspaper for much of the day, yet they stay till 7 at least each night. The reason (as I see it) is that they are not thinking “I could be home relaxing, drinking a beer and watching Haado Gei”, but rather that almost exclusively the Japanese believe it important to be accepted and have a place in society. They don’t feel they’re not being fulfilled; fitting in is fulfulment. This idea runs pretty deep here.

I think we might not value this so much, and it has its costs, but we forget there are many ways we suffer in our eternal search for personal freedom, from teenage gangs to mid-life crises and on and on and on.

Just interesting, that’s all. What’s just plain weird, then? Gay men in Japanese girl’s manga.