imomus | Live on local TV

Yesterday evening we were invited to NHK Hakodate's TV studio to present the 'Lost Radio, Found Sound' project on their arts magazine show, which airs live daily for fifteen minutes, and on Friday gets a 30 minute slot. The studio was hilariously kitsch, with a nautical theme (I supposed it's meant to be 'a cruise' around the town's cultural events), huge robot-like TV cameras, and two terribly self-effacing, super-officious presenters resembling an undertaker and an air hostess.

You wouldn't think a small town like Hakodate would have enough culture to fill that amount of airtime, and you'd be right; the other items on our show were an exhibition at the Hakodate Art Gallery featuring a tea ceremony (the 'undertaker' really went overboard on the location report, slurping his macha with comical abandon), and an old man who made meticulous replicas of samurai armour out of cereal packets. Our ten minute slot had to be rehearsed carefully beforehand, and by the time we were live on air there was a palpable nervousness. Lehan, three students and I were lined up and asked questions about the project. We ended up doing choreographed bowing most of the time. My chance to address Hakodate came in the form of a single question: "You're a musician, so why have you excluded music from this project?" My answer: "Well, naturally I love music, but music is everywhere, it's too sweet, it's designed to please. My feeling is that people who love music should love sound, and people who love sound should love raw sound, just like people who love fish should love sashimi". It seemed to go down well, in that brightly lit 'cabin' with painted windows. As we filed out (they were rolling VT, an item about tree pruning) I noticed a model owl perched on the main monitor. It all felt very David Lynch, somehow.

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From the pics, it actually looks more Wes Anderson than David Lynch. What a beautiful little studio. Maybe you can get one of those carboard samurai suits for your next live show?

b

Ah, 'The Life Aquatic'. Yes, you're probably right.

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Actually, you've just reminded me why I think David Lynch and Marxy are both somewhat ridiculous. Their way of thinking demands something ultra-sinister to be going on behind the scenes at all times. In David Lynch Evil takes the form, usually, of a dwarf sitting in a wheelchair in a red velvet curtained room, filmed with a wide-angled lens, with backwards talking. (Dwarves, disabled people, wide-angle lens fans and people who talk backwards rise as one and thank Lynch for making the association between them and 'evil' clear.) In Marxy Evil takes the form of a sort of 'conspiracy theory lite', in which Japan must, at every point, have something sinister and disturbing going on behind the scenes. (Japanese people rise as one and thank Marxy for pointing this out. Or not.)

I don't actually believe in 'Evil'. I just think different people do things in different ways.

I point this out because Marxy's latest blog entry (http://pliink.com/mt/marxy/) compares the splendid Osaka Expo 70 to "North Korean mass art", and you know that when an American invokes North Korea, it's to invoke the spectre of 'Evil'. What, no plans to attack Iran 'at this point in time' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4237049.stm), Condoleezza? But it's evil!

I'm trying to think of what the equivalent would be in the west, if not good and evil. Penthouse and pavement? Surface and depth? Cock and bull? Appearance and reality? The shadows and the ideas? Public and private? My face and my other face? Trading and insider trading? Theory and praxis? Langue and parole? Business and crime?

It's just that your comment on whether I'd 'get a chance to see what goes on behind the scenes' does smack of 'conspiracy theory lite'. All I've done is describe an appearance on a local TV station, and yet you're already creating a hidden, shadowy world which sounds very much like the TV studio's 'evil twin' to me, something dark and hidden to contrast with its brightness and accessibility. It seems there's a mindset that demands that this 'evil twin' world exist. Especially in Japan. This mindset portrays itself as 'cynical and worldy-wise', but I often wonder if it isn't somewhat fantasist, because it's always imagining 'that which cannot be seen', and portraying it as more real than that which can.

Okay, this (http://hkuhist2.hku.hk/nakasendo/omoteura.htm) is the only page in English I've been able to google about the concepts of omote and ura. It's by two Americans, Stanley and Irving. They describe omote as a show of unity, a facade, the appearance of things. And ura as the more fractious, dark, disunited 'reality' behind them.

The authors point out that although omote might be seen by westerners as conformism or 'living a lie', in fact the emphasis on etiquette and facade in Japanese life keeps presentation standards higher than they tend to be in the west. Which might explain why people outside my door are shovelling snow all the time, despite the fact that more falls immediately to replace it, or why I'm so afraid of putting out my rubbish on the wrong day that I hoard it indoors, creating a dark, looming, evil-smelling 'garbage conspiracy' in the privacy of my apartment.

On reflection I think I'm going to stick to Lynch's "the owls are not what they seem" as the ultimate expression of this syndrome. Omote and ura just makes it sound as if this sort of stuff was invented by the Japanese.

Snacks in themselves are uninteresting, a man making snack boxes into a cardboard samurai outfit is interesting!

Anyway, yes, point taken, I'm probably reading too much into your comment. And thanks for introducing me to the concept of omote/ura. Previously they were just two parts of Harajuku for me.

Is this a similar concept to honne to tatemae?? Please enlighten me if you will!

This is not really connected with anything at all. I was just reminded of one time I was on the phone to a friend, and, partwya through the conversation I said, "Just a minute, the caterpiller's on the ribbon again." To which he replied, "Where are you, in a fucking David Lynch film?"

I realised then my remark might have sounded strange to someone who did not know the background to it.

That's a brilliant statement... I can't imagine what it could mean, and I think I'll enjoy it more if I never know! :)

Thank you. I think this is one case in which the omote is more interesting than the ura, which is why I excercised restraint and stopped where I did. Please enjoy the not knowing.

Bonjour.
Je viens de recevoir votre nouvel album.
Comme toujours il est délicieux. Le mot "délicieux" (presque comme un bonbon) correspond bien à vos disques.
Félicitations en espérant vous voir en concert prochainement à Bruxelles.

Daisypopp, Bruxelles

http://www.livejournal.com/users/daisypopp/

>an old man who made meticulous replicas of samurai armour out of cereal packets.
That sounds astonishing! Would love to see that.

Momus-
I think, going forward, you should replace all references to "Japan" with "Tokyo". Because, clearly, you're not comfortable outside the capital.

I fucking loved Sapporo, Gramps.

Momus,

Your posts here and your replies elsewhere make it look like long stay up there in the freezing cold is affecting you badly. You seem more nervous, less rational (although you have never been a model of enlightenment logic, which I know you take pride on), almost paranoid in a way. Are you ok?

BTW, since the TV camera in the picture looked pretty normal to me was your robot comment meant in the Japanese giant robot/gundam way or in the British Dalek sort of way?

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Daisy

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