It's an electronic fish, reading some magazines

[imomus]

The Hugs and Kisses edition of Vice magazine carries my article about the Cheburashka cult in Moscow. But you'll know all about that already if you've been following these pages; what appears on Click Opera is pretty much what appears in Vice two months later. Stay ahead of the hipsters -- read it here first! (I've also just heard that my piece on Israeli artist Yael Bartana will appear in the CD-ROM catalogue for the upcoming World Wide Video Festival, being held between 10th and 20th of June in Amsterdam, which gives my take on her work some sort of weird official imprimatur).

One of the first Click Opera entries was a survey of Japanese magazine titles courtesy of Magazo, the virtual kiosk, and Babelfish, the babbling and fishy translation service. I thought it was high time we had another look at what's rolling off the presses in Japan, and what the funny fish makes of it. Oh, and do scroll down to the bottom of this entry, where there's a treasure trove of historic Japanese TV commercials!

But first, the magazines.


Fudge
What the fish says about it


Studio Voice
What the fish says about it



Paper Sky
What the fish says about it



BT art magazine
What the fish says about it



Cutie
What the fish says about it



Relax
What the fish says about it



Mini
What the fish says about it



Ryuko Tsushin
What the fish says about it



Beautiful Kimono
What the fish says about it



Not Seeing
What the fish says about it



H
What the fish says about it

Magazo don't have Hanatsu Baki, Shiseido's fashion survey and one of the best Japanese fashion magazines, because it's a free magazine. But I found a fantastic online exhibition at NYU showing covers from Hanatsu Baki throughout the 20th century:



Hanatsu Baki covers

The same site has a really wonderful cache of Shiseido TV and cinema commercials from the 1950s to the 1990s. My favourite is the very Spooky Kabuki Simonpure Matsuri cinema presentation from the early 80s, with its sub-Kraftwerk music and its Ring-horror feel. Then there's the fabulously Analog Baroque Serge Lutens: Baroque and Poesie commercial, which could be an excerpt from Cremaster 5. And who (except the advertising industries and viewing publics of the puritan Western world) could resist the parade of naked children in the Olive soap commercial?

(If the video files don't work in your web browser, copy the URLs and paste them directly into RealPlayer in the Open Location window. Then you can play them full screen.)


Shiseido Candy Tone Lipstick, 1961

Sherbert Tone Lipstick, 1962

Men's Cosmetics, 1960

Pearl Toothpaste, 1960s

Serge Lutens: Baroque and Poesie

Pink Pop, 1968

Inoui

Vintage Aftershave, 1980s

Inoui

Simonpure short, 1980s

Simonpure Matsuri long film, 1980s

Body lotion puppet, 1980s

Noh, 1980s

Men's mousse, 1990s

Olive soap, 1980s

Benefique creamy foundation, 1980s

Beauty cake, 1960s

What I find really fascinating in these commercials is how they trace Japan's self-consciousness about its own difference, and how they encode the country's 'superlegitimacy' -- something I'll write about another day.

Comments

[m0lybdenum.livejournal.com]

Last month's Relax had several pages of street interviews about people's favorite writing instruments. As a devotee of Pen Culture, I thought it was brilliant.