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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.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 03:00 am (UTC)i love japanese magazines yes i am japanese!
i like relax so much YEAH!!!!! and H sometimes.
I love the magazine lots of pictures mostly.
and i love the girl on MINI and CUTIE on the left :-) she's so pretty.
other magazine i like called "KOKOKU HIHYO" (http://www.kokokuhihyo.com/)
it's about advertising. but i like alot. and "CUT" hmmm then my favorite comedy company's magazine cakked "Yoshimoto Tsushin" it's 100 yen super cheap hehe.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 03:14 am (UTC)http://www.viceland.com/jp/
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 08:12 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 08:40 am (UTC)make me very ashamed to be japanese
sigh. anyhow --
the new vice magazine is rather disturbing
especially the poster insert that reveals
someone has got too much time on their hands!
(and apparently has been collecting random peni for quite a bit...)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 08:51 am (UTC)http://www.shiseido.co.jp/s9604tub/
Kei T
olive
Date: 2004-05-20 10:34 am (UTC)do you know the films of shuji terayama?
my favorite one is Tomato Ketchup Kotei (1970), where society is run completely by children and adults are used as slaves. it got only 1 comment on imdb: do not see this film! (the obvious child-porn connection)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066468/
but I was reminded by it watching the olive soap commercial.
another terayama from the 70s is the brechtian: throw away your books and go into the streets! (lovely title!)(I remember at the end of the film terayama takes down a curtain and let all the actors tell the public who they are in reallife)
saw them long time ago at the filmfestival here in rotterdam.
I would love to see them once again but regarding the contemporary morale of child nudity it is very unlikely.
Re: olive
Date: 2004-05-20 11:47 am (UTC)you should peer at this...
Date: 2004-05-20 03:18 pm (UTC)i make it for you!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-20 10:37 pm (UTC)thank you momus!!
Re: you should peer at this...
Date: 2004-05-20 10:44 pm (UTC)Re: you should peer at this...
Date: 2004-05-21 01:37 am (UTC)<3
Adam
cutie
Date: 2004-05-21 06:31 am (UTC)And....at last, thanks to this LJ, I feel...hip!! (well, semi-hip....not in danger of being so hip my bum's about to fall off, but still...) :)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-21 10:05 am (UTC)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?
Re: you should peer at this...
Date: 2004-05-21 12:46 pm (UTC)it would be quite amazing to have a gear rack called "the pot of gold" hmmm....
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-21 12:48 pm (UTC)bartana
Date: 2004-05-22 04:22 am (UTC)http://www.wdw.nl
Re: bartana
Date: 2004-05-22 11:40 am (UTC)such great stuff was shown there...it was ridiculous.
Re: bartana
Date: 2004-05-22 01:25 pm (UTC)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
glasnoticism
Date: 2004-05-22 05:00 pm (UTC)Historically, there seems to be something in the genius of the Russian people that is attracted to centrality and iconicism (orthodox christianity, czarism through sovietism.) it is interesting that in the face of the plurality of postmodern economic and cultural conditions, the kids have turned to this totemistic nostalgia as a means of asserting their identity and opposition to the status quo. Counter-cultural movements tend to be typified by a radical break from the old, together with a defining ideology. This retro-futurism mixed with iconoclasticism is somehow very russian.
cheers for the stimulating LJ and website, i saw you in brighton once, you were the proverbial nang, hope you don't mind if i lurk like a bastard. <3
Re: bartana
Date: 2004-05-22 06:36 pm (UTC)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.
cover model anna tsuchiya
Date: 2004-05-28 09:29 am (UTC)- anna tsuchiya's mom