Gallery: Adidas-clad ectomorph gousters

[imomus]

I love the 1979 film Rockers, which I first saw -- and watched on repeat loop -- in a wooden house in Hokkaido three years ago, buried under several feet of snow. It was the perfect antidote to the Japanese winter, and yet, at the same time, the perfect complement to it: in a weird style-swap, many of the sartorial modes you see in this movie are preserved in Japan much better than they are in today's Jamaica. Watching the movie, I kept seeing "Japanese" faces (look, there's Eye Yamataka!), and imagining the record shacks where Horsemouth flogs his dub plates were in Shimokitazawa or Koenji.



Under the cut I've put a big strip of freeze-frame pictures from Rockers, which shows more cool dandies -- Adidas-clad ectomorph gousters, many of them reggae musicians in real life -- than any other film I know. But you really have to see the film to get the full effect, because you need the music, and you need to watch the way these guys (and they are mostly guys) walk. Like wounded tom cats or swaggery, staggery lions of Judah with ludicrous, loose-limbed ganja gait. Oh, to walk -- and dress -- like that!

Comments

[luckysaddle.livejournal.com]

These pseudo-Adidas wearers should watch out, as it is a case of 2 stripes bad, four stripes worse as this case (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=apTuscjFuTtE&refer=germany) shows.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Bah, does Adi Dassler think he invented the stripe! What hubris!

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[(Anonymous)]

Red Stripe! Hooray Beer!

you love a skinny man in a tracksuit

[(Anonymous)]

oh Momus, they just look like they're at art school in the early 90s.

[(Anonymous)]

i really like jamaican food. i really would like some rice and peas, dumpling and brown stew right about now. it's the ultimate comfort food. i grew up above a jamaican restaurant and unfortunately while i find a lot of restaurants in brooklyn that specialize in this particular food, none of them match that exact taste i'm used to. there are some close calls, though. perhaps i will go to one tonight.

sorry, just had to vent. the movie looks interesting, i'll have to check it out. is there any good jamaican in berlin?

[niddrie-edge.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting looking at the clothes worn in various zones of strife. Current African clothing in Kenya and Somalia and Sudan are worth a look.
The Lebanese and Palestinian and Iraqi outfits tell many stories of imperialism.

More of a Swenka man.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I loves me a man in a tracksuit who smells suffocatingly of weed.

[zazie-metro.livejournal.com]

Looks awesome. Let's do a "Rockers" film night! Do you have the DVD? If not, we may have to think of ways to procure a copy, ne...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I have the file, so let's have an evening of it, Sunshine!

[akabe.livejournal.com]

i just happened to watch it again the day before yesterday so i'm with you give or take a minimal gap in the space-time continuum. oh the 70s; my theory is that sweat (the essence of the 70s from what i recall) and other bodily odours, hair and all will make a big comeback in the next ten years.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

"my theory is that sweat (the essence of the 70s from what i recall) and other bodily odours, hair and all will make a big comeback in the next ten years."

lol n00b to hipsters.

sha la la la la and a ling tong ting

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

Edwins love momus!!

I am a man of constant swenka

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

Daddy!

[inuitmonster.livejournal.com]

It already has in my house.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Congratulations to your father?

Re: More of a Swenka man.

[flying-squid.livejournal.com]

I am jonesin' the Swenka a lot!

[inuitmonster.livejournal.com]

he has made me the comfort loving man I am today.

Re: More of a Swenka man.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

For a Philly flavor: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes

Re: More of a Swenka man.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

(Jesus, Teddy was a beautiful man) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFm4IQFZ1xk)

D'yer maker

[count-vronsky.livejournal.com]

I caught a ride with one of these gousters once. Not Jamaica, but a nearby island, I was maybe 16. I had had an argument with my friend about who was going to drive the scooter that night, and I wouldn't give in and he wouldn't budge, so I said f' it, I'll hitchhike home. Rasta man picked me up and drove me the 30 minute ride home talking, or maybe preaching, the entire way. Not one word, not even a syllable did I understand, but I sat there nodding, saying yeah, yeah, like I spoke fluent dub the entire time.

Re: More of a Swenka man.

[flying-squid.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I remember you posting about the Blue Notes before. Excellent!

[slime-slime-sly.livejournal.com]

ive been to a couple of places in africa and asia that are kind of like that, now. But im not telling :p :d :p