The solitude of ravens

The British Journal of Photography has named Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase’s 1986 Karasu (Ravens) as the best photobook of the past 25 years*. According to the BJP:

The book is a mournful reflection on Fukase’s past relationship, but has also been interpreted as an allegorical critique of modern industrialised society.

Through dark, grainy images of karasu, Fukase chronicles a lonesome trip to his hometown in Hokkaido in the late 70s while deep in the throes of divorce from his wife/former muse.

Fukase is said to have first become engrossed by the brooding karasu as he sat aboard the train from Tokyo, not knowing his collection would one day be hailed an obscure masterpiece by British critics. Despite three sold-out editions and a revised, slightly more impressionistic name (The Solitude of Ravens), Fukase’s work has remained largely unknown until this recent accolade.

Karasu are plentiful in Japan, particularly in the cities where special anti-karasu nets are used to protect domestic rubbish from being strewn about the streets. In Japanese mythology, they are said to represent foreboding and dangerous times ahead. I had always translated the word karasu as simply crow, rather than the more mysterious raven, but the Japanese word can apparently mean both black birds. It will take someone far more ornithological than me to know which is actually represented in Fukase’s book.

On a melancholy note**, Fukase has remained in a coma since the early 1990s. He is said to have fallen down stairs while drunk, which merely adds another level of sadness and solitude to his work.

*The Guardian subeditors may have been skeptical about the BJP’s choice of Kurasu. Their article by Sean O’Hagan, Masahisa Fukase’s Raavens: the best photobook of the past 25 years? is a pretty clear example of poorly-chosen punctuation, considering the overall positive tone of the piece.

**On a totally geeky linguistic note, did you know the collective noun for ravens is an unkindness? I did not, until I heard The Unkindness of Ravens, a cool little London two-piece who tend to hang out in Camden.

Images from The Guardian and Mass Observer.

Japan’s town flag typography

Town flags L-R: Taketomi (in Okinawa) shows 竹 (take); Hachijō reflects the kanji for Hachijō 八丈, arranged in the shape of a bird.

Studying Japanese is tough. There’s three written languages, one of which, kanji (the complex ideograms) can be read using both Japanese and Chinese pronunciation. Every year, the government lists nearly 2,000 essential kanji characters for all high school students to learn, without which they cannot fully comprehend a national newspaper.

To make things interesting for those folks studying the many kanji (& to pay tribute to the graphic designers who come up with this stuff), I present an extract of Pink Tentacle’s collection of Japanese town flags that ingeniously incorporate kanji in their design.

L-R: Ibaraki: Note the pigeon resembles the character for 茨 (ibara); Ōme combines the kanji 青 (ao) and plum blossom 梅 (ume) to signify 青梅 (Ōme).

Scrolling through the collection, you’ll notice many resemble the traditional monotone mon symbols (similar to a coat of arms), where birds, flowers and other natural elements abound. Sometimes you need to squint to see what they’re getting at, but it’s fascinating to think that Japanese (along with Chinese, and any other ideogram-based language) has a whole extra element to its representation. For example, the ‘take’ from Taketomi (top left) means bamboo, yet the design focusses on the shape of the character 竹, rather than the literal meaning.

On second thoughts, that could kinda work in English too, couldn’t it? The difference is that a single letter doesn’t necessarily signify a whole concept or idea, like an ideogram does… Ok, now I’m getting confused. Let’s just enjoy them on a purely aesthetic level, shall we?

L-R: Shinagawa: Reflecting the kanji for 品 (shina) - looking slightly reminiscent of the Mitsubishi logo - and one of my favourite cities, Matsumoto, where pine (matsu) needles encircle the kanji 本 (moto).

There’s 42 more flags over at Pink Tentacle; or a list of 100 flags here at Web Designer Depot.

Summer is a verb, says new preppy bible

Summer - verb (used with object)
To spend or pass the summer. They summered in Southampton.

So says Alice Richardson, author of Summer is a Verb blog. She’s looking forward to True Prep, the long-awaited sequel (due out in September) to The Official Preppy Handbook, which she describes as ‘like a Bible to us’ in a recent New York Times article.

The NYT says Muffy & Biff (which I assume are akin to Tarquin and Beatrice in the UK?) can rejoice in a revised version of the Preppy Handbook. The original was released in 1980  (‘when it was fun to hate the rich’) and quickly became a cult favourite both with preppy kids – and those who wanted to be them.

This new version ‘dispenses a dollop of  upper-class frugality’ for the modern ‘prepster’ and even includes advice on rehab and new technology, as well as specific sections on the gay and black preppy scenes. (How inclusive of them!).

As for the new guide’s target audience, Ms Richardson (who at 44 is something of an OGP) is listed alongside ex-sorority girl Helen ‘Hopsy’ Goblirsch (from Kappa Prep, with its delightful ‘WASP Wednesday’ series). They’re just two of the many preppy bloggers who chronicle their lives in pink and green. (Apparently preppy folk like these two colours. As did my cousin when she 11. I thought it was a hideous colour combination and wondered why she would ever make an email address declaring her love for the two. Perhaps she was just a ‘prepster’ in the making?)

True Prep is in now in production thanks to Chip Kidd, ‘one of the industry’s best-known book designers’*. Kidd is working with one of the original writers, Lisa Birnbach, whilst the guy who came up with the entire concept, Jonathon Roberts, has refused to be involved. He explains:

The only reason you do something again is if maybe you’re going to do it better — like Godfather II.

But Preppy Handbook? I mean, come on. The subversive idea behind it was if you can reveal all of the secret systems and totems by which a portion of society keeps its elite status, you kind of pull the rug out from under them.

Respect. Roberts deserves a medal for this splendid display of integrity in the face of a book deal.

For similar satire of the upper classes in the UK, please refer to 1982’s Official Sloane Rangers Handbook. Author Peter York was asked in 2007 to update his guide to the traditional values of the privileged, although no such book has been released.

Yet. 

In the meantime, please see Orlando’s exploits in the jungles of Burma, below.  Not a preppy bible, as such, but rather an acute jab at the privileged youngsters who (literally) travel far and wide on their gap year. Then chunder everywhere.

*Which industry is that, NYT? The preppy-guidebook-loving book designer industry?

**OGP c.f. OGT

Read more about the photo guide to preppy style.

I can’t believe it’s not kosher

I thought I had it tough, giving up dairy for Lent*.

Turns out our Jewish friends observing Passover (Mar 28 – Apr 6) have a much more difficult task, avoiding many staple items, particularly chametz – bread, grain and leavened products. They also relinquish corn, rice, peanuts, buckwheat (that’s soba), mustard & poppy seeds, alcohol, all beans (including tofu), peas and chickpeas. (Judging by the unhappy cat below, a lack of peas not actually be a problem). Even the childhood favourite Play-Doh is out for the duration of the festival.

Why so strict, you ask? Blogging Rabbi Paul Kipnes describes chametz as being ‘full of air – or perhaps full of itself’, quoting Philo, a Greek-Jewish philosopher who said chametz is a form of pride. Rabbi Paul explains:

Removing chametz on Passover from our homes, our lives, our families, is a struggle between who we really are now and who we can be, once we strip away all the trappings of self-importance.

(Something tells me I would’ve stuck to my Lenten promise had I considered it in such insightful terms and it represented ditching inflated pride, as opposed to a daily chocolate habit).

Whereas once chametz items were actually thrown out (or thrown on a massive bonfire) in preparation for Passover, today’s modern folk can simply sell their leavened goods for a nominal fee. Sydney restaurateur/aspiring politico Peter Doyle paid AU$200 to buy the leavened products (& alcohol!) from thousands of Jewish families in Australia. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald about his short-lived bounty, Doyle said:

I have free access to it and I can go into anyone’s home and take what I want.

Awesome. But as he’s a upstanding, conservative guy hoping to make it big with the Liberals, he’s agreed to return the chametz at the end of Passover. Rabbi Paul, on the other hand, has announced it’s okay to eat rice and beans, which means vegan Jews will actually have something other than matzo (unleavened bread) to eat.

And for those in the US who aren’t sure when Passover is about to occur, keep your eyes on the supermarket drinks aisle. Coke caps go yellow for a short period every year to signify the use of sucrose (sugar) in place of high fructose corn syrup – you know, the stuff that makes American chocolate taste kinda funky. According to Chemical & Engineering News, Coke was one of the first major brands to go kosher back in the 30s, with the certifying rabbis having to first promise to never reveal the secret ingredient. 

And if anyone (who isn’t Jewish) is craving a New Coke, head to Yap or American Samoa. They actually still drink it.

Disclaimer: I am not Jewish. In fact, save for my occasional visits to Church on significant holidays (and that pesky pilgrimage across Spain), I’m rather lackadaisical with my faith. Please let me know if there are any errors in the above, or if you have any preferences between sugar Coke and the corn syrup stuff.

*Just don’t tell Jesus about Wednesday night’s mac&cheese. The Regent in Kensal Green has got it goin’ on.

Megadeth’s mr heavy metal

Blimey, who knew former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman left the band as didn’t suit his refined taste in music? He told Ultimate Guitar mag:

I didn’t think Megadeth were aggressive enough! It was getting to the point where everything was kind of mid-tempo, old school metal. And there was so much cooler nu metal happening at the time, that I really felt we needed to get modern because this shit that we were doing was not aggressive enough. And our pop stuff was not pop enough.

He now lives in Tokyo, the land of pop, where he’s fluent in Japanese and known as Mr Heavy Metal.

In this Heavy Metal Major League clip, a dude in full Kiss regalia tells Mr Heavy Metal ‘you’re awesome!’ before announcing to Paul Gilbert (aka Mr Big), ‘you suck!’. The host then selects balls painted with alphabet letters from a box and the two axemen must ‘play ball’ by playing a riff from an artist starting with that letter*.

TV in the UK is all The F Word this and X-Factor that. If only the producers would look to Japan…or listen to more heavy metal.

*Gilbert’s first choice of Yngwie Malmsteen for ‘y’ is pretty impressive…but perhaps I just don’t know enough metal guitarists?

Sign (language) of the times

Casablancas reminded me of this delightful Converse campaign:

…which made me think of Santogold, and her electrifying performance at Lollapalooza last year. Decked out in shades, killer hoops and an amazing leopard-print jumpsuit with golden hi-tops, Santi rocked the sunny afternoon, backed up by two dancers in twin gold jackets. 

The highlight of her performance was not her lacklustre Cure cover, but the lively lady at stage right, dancing, singing and signing along to every song.

Sign language interpreters have been quite common at US festivals since 2002, with interpreters doing their thing for bands from the Beastie Boys and Coldplay* to Bjork, Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails. Even the Mars Volta, who apparently use an Aztec vocab which is beyond me. (I wonder how the signers would fare doing Sigur Ros?).

According to a Time Out NY interview with Barbie Parker from Alive Performance Interpreting, hearing-impaired festival folk generally prefer reggae or other music with deep bass lines. This means folksy strumming and harmonies from bands like the Fleet Foxes is usually out – and after seeing them perform at Lolla 09, I’d probably agree.

For each festival, signers perform alongside as many as 15 acts, with many bands changing their sets in each city. Granted, this guy doing Santogold has a cheat sheet, but the ladies at Lollapalooza seemed to actually know and love the music they were performing.

Huff post described their work with equal fervour:

They don’t merely sign lyrics; they sign tempo, they sign riffs, they seem to have specific gestures for specific instruments. And it’s not just the hands. It’s a whole-body thing, it’s dancing with social purpose**, and short of singing, what could be better than that?

More importantly, though, is this Snoop Dogg in sign ?

*I always thought deafness would save me from  Chris Martin?

** Where can I learn to dance with social purpose?