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

[giggomachine.livejournal.com]

yael bartana is going places.
she's such an incredible filmmaker, and getting better by the second.
i distribute her work in america, and it's quite sad she doesn't get enough festival invitations, she's truly a talent...
we actually haven't gotten "when adar enters" yet, because the offices in the netherlands are a flimsy nonprofit distro (but we just got a huge grant!!!!). we've been dying of anticipation, they've bee promising it to us for a while now.
have you seen her other works?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I've just seen what was in last year's Kunst-Werke show, Territories, a film of some Israeli beach buggies climbing sand dunes, plus the three pieces in the show at Jannowitzbrucke, one of a hot air balloon (more of the Israeli 'extreme sports' theme), one of a theological school, and the 'Adar' piece. That one stands out for me because it's both documentary and highly baroque.

bartana

[(Anonymous)]

I' ve seen the car-sanddune piece many times here at witte de with in rotterdam when territories was shown here (after kunstwerke), cos i have a job here.
http://www.wdw.nl

Re: bartana

[giggomachine.livejournal.com]

did you get a chance to go to the latest rotterdam film festival?
such great stuff was shown there...it was ridiculous.

Re: bartana

[(Anonymous)]

well, I'v e been going to the festival for almost 10 years, but my interest is a bit wearing off lately. I used to see 3 films a day. as mentioned above I did get a chance to see the amazing terayama films for instance. i had liked to see the complete cremaster cycle this year, but i failed.

I did see the ken jacobs star spangled to death film, a compilation mostly of found footage, diary and performances by jacobs and his friend legendary jack smith! the film lasted now for hours but I was very exited about it.

there was one particular found footage of nixon giving an apology speech on national televison, something abt money (don't know exactly what, he got money for sonething which he should not have taken) and he starts giving his public a full detailed history of his financial situation from the day he was born (nixon is still a senator here) which must have taken more than an hour! next to him sits mrs. nixon almost like a wax statue, silent but with an expression of pure admiration on her face (with subversively added ooh and aaah and sighs on sound-tape by jacobs) a classic example of stand by your man if ever there was.

erik
rotterdam, holland

Re: bartana

[giggomachine.livejournal.com]

star spangled to death is an incredible film.
if you've been going to rotterdam fil festival for that long, you might know my boss, ralph mckay. he used to be the programmer for the festival.