January Scouting: Usami Takashi

22, played for Bayern Munich in the Champions' League as a teenager, not afraid of a shot...go annnnnnnnnnnnnn...

Every 14 Days...(24)

The Double (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Suppose I should read some Dostoyevsky in my life. Especially when it's two for £3.99.

With 'The Double' recently made into a film by Mr. Gadget Man himself, Richard Ayoade, I thought this would be a good place to start. Maybe it wasn't. The film met mixed reviews, as did the original story itself, even from the man himself.

A civil servant is one day shocked to find a 'double' of himself now working at his office, though the polar opposite to many of his negative traits. Soon, the 'original' finds himself behind his clone in work and social life, leading to a bitter conflict and an inevitable decent into madness.

The idea is a strong one, though the execution is maybe not always the best, not always a great read, though conveys the frustration, anger and madness that the 'double' creates in the story's hero. The humour in the writing is also good, with long-winded repeating of phrase. But towards the story's conclusions, you felt perhaps more could have been done with the idea.  

Days to read: 18

Days per book: 15.0

The Last Holiday (Gil Scott-Heron)

Gil Scott-Heron is a poet, and I know it. As one of the unofficial godfathers of rap, he is a master of words, and so I expect nothing less from his memoir. But as a memoir, this is a little confused. Released posthumously, it was always going to be more a sum of parts rather than a whole, and the supposed focus is not always apparent.

The idea was for it to focus around his part in Stevie Wonder's 'Hotter than July' tour in the early Eighties - a tour promoting Martin Luther King's birthday being made a national holiday - but before he could get there, he chose to tell the story of how he got to be there first. This results in the book essentially being an out-and-out autobiography up to a certain point in his life, but then sees several leaps in time over the next thirty years.

So, this may not necessarily be as it's billed, but this is jazz, baby. His writing doesn't need any structure, with his lists of adjectives flowing poetically off the page. There are indeed lots of poetry breaks throughout, almost as summations of the moment, like a haiku, but within the main body the words flow like a song.

This makes for a joyful read about his upbringing, his father who played or Celtic and the start of both his writing and music careers, edited and cobbled together for your listening pleasure.

Days to read: 19

Days per book: 15.0

The Strange Library (Haruki Murakami)

'The Strange Library' isn't really a new Murakami work, being that it dates from Japan in 1982, released as a short story of a different name. But it has now made its way to English translation, released as a illustrated children's book...which is probably why it was so quick for me to read, being that it is actually a book aimed at my reading level.

A young boy enters a library, returning some books, wanting to take out some more. He is sent to a strange reading room, where his reading of books is demanded by a strange old man, and of course, a sheep man - a Murakami favourite. Looked away and forced to read as much as possible about Ottoman Empire tax collecting, he worries that his mother will wonder why he has not returned home in time for dinner.

This book is less about its story, however, and more about the English translation which illustrates the story using images from The London Library and other collections. This make it more of a strange art piece than children's short story, making it interesting to look at, though the story flies by the images with ease.

Days to read: 1

Days per book: 14.9

Notes from Underground (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Yay! Hundredth book spectacular! So, it's just over four years since I started this pointless experiment. By now, I should have reached a little over one hundred books read. I'm a little off that target, having just reached one hundred exactly.

Not exactly a celebratory piece to mark the moment, 'Notes from underground' is a dark read about a middle-aged man, made bitter by the modern world, living underground providing us with a lecture as to the world's wrongs, before we are shown examples from his earlier life of experiences that led him to where he now resides.

The story is in two clear halves: the first a long, rambling critique of society; the second stories from his younger life. The first half proves a difficult read, with long rants in hard to digest chunks, though provides some interesting insights throughout. The book's second half is both an easier read and brings it back to life, as I felt myself often drifting into the depths of lost concentration in the first half. Here we see stories and characters brought in - and they are welcome - working as examples of the narrator's decent into the man he has now become, trapped in a St Petersburg basement.

This is an interesting read, an at-time-difficult read, but ultimately rewarding one, providing a criticism of early modernist society.

Here's to the next hundred...urgh...

Days to read: 13

Days per book: 14.9

The Grandmaster

The last time the great Wong Kar-wai released a feature-length film was back in 2007 - only his second film in seven years - and I wish he hadn't bothered. 'My Blueberry Nights' just annoyed me from start to finish. While, as with any Wong film, it looked good, his brush with Hollywood dragged, with bland music and even more bland characters, making his usual themes and styles seem pretentious. After watching it, I came away almost liking Jude Law for bringing the only it of charisma to the film, but also wondering if all of his films had been like this, I just didn't notice because of the language barrier.

After many rumoured English-language films, his next feature-length work is a return to Hong Kong (eventually), a reunion with his foremost leading man, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and a return to his brief flirts with kung-fu.

'The Grandmaster' is the often told story of Ip Man, the legendary kung-fu master of wing chun and mentor of Bruce Lee. Wong focuses on the war years of his life and his relationship with Gong Er, played by Zhang Ziyi. The film, therefore, is a blend of Wong's love and whimsy mixed with kung-fu fighting.

Now, he's done this before with 'Ashes of Time', a film that's not his best, but stands up well alongside his others. 'The Grandmaster', however maybe struggles to keep up the pace. Like 'My Blueberry Nights', 'The Grandmaster' is exquisite to look at, with shots as good as any post-Nujabes Japanese hip hop video you'll find on YouTube. But for the, this maybe where the problems lie. Beautiful shots do not necessarily a great kung-fu film make, often finding that the over-angular nature of the camerawork detracts from viewing the fight scenes. I don't necessarily think of 'Ashes of Time' as a kung-fu film, just a good film, but with 'The Grandmaster' focusing so much on kung-fu, it maybe suggests that Wong isn't a master of the kung-fu genre.

With the cast including many big names, including Wong regulars, the acting is strong and characters are a definite step up from 'My Blueberry Nights'. As indeed is the script, with many of the life questions and lessons reminiscent of his films of the Nineties. But there are just certain moments that hurt the film. The train station battle between Gong Er and Ma San is, at times, a little over-the-top and slightly comical, out of sync with the rest of the film. Indeed it's probably the kung-fu fighting that lets the film down here. The philosophy behind the martial arts is present, but while this is a good-looking action film, it's not always an exhilarating one.

'The Grandmaster' is somewhat of a return to form for Wong Kar-wai, though it's probably no coincidence that his last three films since 2000's 'In the Mood for Love' have probably been his worst. Maybe it's his departure from working with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, but perhaps it's his attempts at the new: a sequel, an English-language film and now a kung-fu film, suggesting Wong is not a jack-of-all-trades, but a grandmaster of one.

Politic 25

NOISES I HERE!!!

Slit of Cloud - DJ Krush and Akira Sakata
No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn - Beastie Boys
You Can't Fade Me / JD's Gaffilin' - Ice Cube
Get Lifted - Keith Murray
Figure of Speech - K.M.D.
Automated Life Machines- Fat Jon
Move Slow - New Flesh and Beans (for dinner?!)
Pieces of a Man - Gil Scott Heron
Innervisions - DJ Cam
Pretense - DJ Krush
Black Satin (on the Corner) - Miles Davis and DJ Krush
Beats - DJ Shadow and DJ Krush
Spiritual Prayer - Sugizo and DJ Krush
Univearth - DJ Krush and Tetsuro Naito
Darkrun - Anchorsong
Cutting the Edge - Anchorsong
Mental Invasion - DJ Cam
Dandelion - Michita, Hisomi-TNP and Meiso
クモリナキアメ - Michita and Meiso 
Fazers - King Geedorah

Every 14 Days...(23)

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Second attempt at a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short novel and a much better experience this time around.

Written from the perspective of a returning townsfolk, it follows people's recollections of a murder in the village following a wedding at which the whole village was involved. Patchy details follow as the protagonist tries to uncover the story of what happened to his friend that day, with the more he discovers, the more he finds that everyone knew the murder was about to happen and simply stood by as the situation unfolded.

With the murderers obvious and known by all, the real discovery is of how the village murdered Santiago Nasar, with everybody knowing, everybody speaking, but nobody acting in an indictment of the realities of community spirit.

Days to read: 7

Days per book: 15.0

Stalin Ate my Homework (Alexei Sayle)

I've been meaning to read this for quite some time and recently decided to get off my arse and do it. Now, I'm not a Jewish Communist Scouser, but now I feel like I know what it would be to be one.  This autobiography focuses on his school years up to the age of eighteen, but is as much a story about his formative years as it is the changing political face of the Britain and mainland Europe.

This is a memoir full of subtle comedy, the politics of his eccentric parents and various travels to Eastern Europe during the Soviet years, with exotic summer holidays to Czechoslovakia and Lake Balaton in Hungary.

To be honest, I was probably wanting to read this to get tales of 'The Young Ones' and the rise alternative comedy in the Seventies and Eighties - the clue was in the title that this is not what you would get. But, my foolish expectations aside, this is a very good read by an important figure in Twentieth Century British comedy.

Days to read: 14

Days per book: 15.0

Of Love and other Demons (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

This was another short and cheap purchase, deigned to get my 'days per book' average down, as well as try another Gabriel Garcia Marquez short novel. Again he looks at a victim of local community, with a young girl shunned by everybody, including her parents, after being bitten by a rabid dog, made to live with slaves before being imprisoned within a convent. Soon, everyone deems her possessed, rather than suffering from illness. The priest tasked with exorcising her demons is the one of the few to sympathise with her condition.

This sits very nicely alongside 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold', acting as a criticism of modernised living and the complexity of morality within a wider community. What is right and wrong has been predetermined by religion social convention, with few prepared to question it, instead falling in-line with the group and failing to think for themselves.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 15.0

Strange Weather in Tokyo (Hiromi Kawakami)

This was a book I felt almost compelled to purchase, falling victim, as I was, to Internet search engine Nazis, forcing suggestions up my urethral opening (no casual racism terms here). Based on my reading of Murakamis of all varieties, I had this piece of modern, popularist Japanese literature on my laptop screen on a regular basis, even more than vulgar, graphic images!

A quote from some magazine or other (Monocle) on the back cover talks of how this 'paints perfectly the lightness and delicacy of modern Tokyo.' This is indeed true. There are many images of Tokyo that one can have in their mind, but one that will be present is the very clean, minimalist, chic, stylised view of modern, professional society. Surface-level cool, with designer brands and Michelin-star restaurants. It's very much a Western image of Tokyo that you are likely to find in Hollywood movies. This 'love story' fits in to this image of a utopian world in the Far East.

Tsukiko, a middle-aged singleton develops a nightly binge-drinking relationship with her former school teacher, the obviously-now-much-older 'Sensei'. The more they drink together, the more they grow close, but their history, age and social convention prevent anything from ever really happening. And that is largely that.

One word for this is definitely 'light', there is nothing too deep here, never getting fully under the skin of the characters, being a nice read, but maybe ultimately a little annoying for it. The Japanese title of 'Sensei no kaban' ('Teacher's Briefcase') is much more intriguing as to some of the more hidden elements in the story.

This is light and clean, but needs some more of the grime of the city streets.

Days to read: 12

Days per book: 14.9