Sunday 22 January 2017

Charity Shop Vinyl

Found in the British Heart Foundation, Balham. 

The Flying Pickets' 'Only You'. Christmas Number 1 the year I was born and the closing theme from Wong Kar-wai's 'Fallen Angels', a key film in getting me into Asian cinema.

Liszt's 'Hungarian Fantasy'. What I am to my Hungarian wife...Don't care for Chopin.

Not bad for £1.50...


Thursday 19 January 2017

19 Photos of Japan that I done took...

What follows here be some photos that I have clicked using my fingers of that there Japanese land.

Favourites, some might say...if I could genuinely be arsed to look through each and every one that I have done took... 

Tsutenkaku, Osaka. 15/09/2008.
Battery power failing, I resorted to below standard camera phone usage for this rather cinematic effect.



Konbini, Yotsuya, Tokyo. 12/03/2011.

After the quake...I can't remember the exact one.




Yoyogi Park, Tokyo. 08/04/2012.
Hanami...with dogs.




Nagoyajo, Nagoya. 11/04/2012.
Cherry blossoms mit rain. It's like something from 'Hana-bi' or such. How romantic?!




Fushimi Inari-Taisha, Kyoto. 13/04/2012.
A photo I very much got right.




Gion, Kyoto. 14/04/2012.
Raise the red lantern...and have a beer.




A Bomb Dome, Hiroshima. 16/04/2012.




Kawaguchi-ko. 07/05/2012.
Fuji-san at dawn.




Hataagebenzaitensha, Kamakura. 12/05/2012.
Raise your flag.





Yokohama International Port Terminal, Yokohama. 12/05/2012.
Anglely...and moody...like a desk lamp...




Ajinomoto Stadium, Tokyo. 13/05/2012.
Tokyo Verdy 0 - 1 Fagiano Okayama. Boo...




Noshappu Cape, Wakkanai. 30/05/2012.
Vintage. Very, very vintage.




Cape Soya, Wakkanai. 31/05/2012.
She left.




Daisetsuzan, Asahikawa. 02/06/2012.
Obligatory holiday tour group photo.




Parent-Child Tree, Biei. 03/06/2012.
Self-explanatory.




Kabira Bay, Ishigaki. 18/05/2015.
One of many photos I have of random Japanese men fishing...it's my thing...I sleep with the fishes...




Taketomijima. 19/05/2015.
Riding a bike is quicker than walking.




Izakaya, Osaka. 21/05/2015.
Izakaya-style...Tinned sardines, please.




Daimon Gate, Koyasan. 22/05/2015.
Big, in'it?!



Monday 9 January 2017

New Kakato

Couple of nice new Kakato sounds.

Those dudes 環ROY and 鎮座DOPENESS make noises again...sometimes with super-friend U-zhaan.

Hear me now...

デザインあ ('Design'...or something)


七曜日 ('7 Weekdays'...or something)

Wednesday 4 January 2017

Cromartie High School

'Measured by the standards of modern civilization, they would be like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of 45 years.'
- Douglas MacArthur

Well, that's one interpretation of the Japanese psyche from a Western perspective. Though one not entirely unshared by the Japanese themselves.

The concept of 'immaturity' is one that is often seen in various aspects of Japanese culture, with 'kawaii' mascots for everything, the nature of relationships and extensive use of high school imagery in popular culture. One area of Japanese culture where you'll regularly find all three of these examples is in manga and anime.


'Cromartie High School' is a new millennium manga-turned-anime that unashamedly presents itself as a parody of typical high school manga/anime, embracing the hyperbolic delinquent nature of its characters and scenarios; and in doing so takes an ironic look at the immature nature of many series.

Takashi Kamiyama is a new student at Cromartie High School, a fact that he states at the start of each episode of the anime. A seemingly ordinary and weedy student, it is strange that he has transferred to the all boys' school of delinquent fighters that is Cromartie. The other students also notice this fact and foolishly believe that this new student is the toughest kid in the school, as why else would he transfer there?! What follows is a serialised string of repetitive jokes and scenarios across twenty-six mini episodes, as the students of Cromartie and their rival schools come to terms with reality.

All the characters in Cromartie are sixteen years of age, not that their appearance would suggest it. When each first appears on screen each episode, their name and age is shown, as if to remind you that these are just teenagers. Their older, 'tough guy' looks suggest serious and violent storylines, however, all storylines are magnificently infantile. The parody is clear: with so much manga and anime using juvenile characters to tackle overwhelmingly serious situations, here seemingly mature and violent types deal with the trivial, mundane and immature.

These are 'teenagers' dealing with everyday, trivial dilemmas, that aren't exactly life-threatening, despite how the characters may describe them. This role reversal from typical manga and anime add a surrealist comedy element and paradoxically make it a more mature viewing experience.

These dilemmas include resident tough guy Yutaka Takenouchi finding himself in various scenarios where his travel sickness is exposed; rival school leader Noboru Yamanouchi fretting over finding the perfect joke to send into radio shows to be read out; and the delightfully obscure episode where Hayashida hears Mechazawa humming a tune, but can't recall which song it is from, leading to an endless struggle for the entire school to name that tune.


The character Mechazawa himself is a further example of the surreal comedy: a robot, but no one wants to say it out loud, and so everyone just gets on with this obscurity. The class also includes a silent Freddie Mercury and a gorilla. There are also references to various music and films throughout as well, the manga and DVD covers parodying various famous images, namely those of Queen.

Stylistically, the anime is quite budget. There is very little in the way of actual animation; the characters often speaking in front of blank backgrounds and repetitive shots used. The short length of episodes also suggest a limited budget. All this makes it feel like watching a manga, with the focus very much on content over style, further suggesting Cromartie as a more mature manga/anime.

The truth is there is a lot of underlying immaturity in manga and anime, and the humour of 'Cromartie High School' is very much immature in nature. Though here it is done ironically, parodying the serious scenarios the school children of other series face. With Cromartie, immaturity is something to be embraced.

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Vegalta: Soccer, Tsunami and the Hope of a Nation

On 5th March, 2011, I was in Osaka to watch Gamba Osaka kick-off the 2011 J League season against local rivals Cerezo Osaka. Six days after the home side's 2-1 win, the Tohoku Earthquake struck, delaying the season for a month. Gamba went on the finish third that season, followed in fourth by Vegalta Sendai, a relatively recent addition to the J League Division 1 surprising against the odds: The team from the region most impacted by the resulting tsunami.


Douglas Hurcombe and Geoff Trodd's documentary tells the story of the team rising from recently promoted no-hopers to league runners-up the following 2012 season, naturally serving as a metaphor for the people of the local community overcoming natural disaster to rebuild their lives.

This story is split into three parts: To start, the story of the earthquake and tsunami themselves, with interviews from local Vegalta fans that had their lives torn apart by the disaster. Secondly, the focus shifts to the re-start of the J League season in the aftermath, with Vegalta's away trip to Kawasaki Frontale their first match. Going a goal down, the Vegalta side, backed by their emotional fans complete a fairy-tale comeback to win 2-1 in the final minutes. The concluding part looks at the 2012 season, the Vegalta players and fans having played their part in helping to rebuild the community, raising money and going out to various towns and villages in the area. Though perhaps their biggest contribution to the community was building on the club's most successful campaign of 2011 to go one step further, nearly taking the title itself.


Much is made of the Tohoku people's stoic, 'country-bumpkin' mentality and how this benefited them in the aftermath of the disaster. Indeed, the fans interviewed who had family members and friends killed show a coming to terms with what happened, emphasised by their desire for the Frontale game to go ahead, fans turning up in their thousands only weeks after their homes were destroyed; and the emotional season-closing message from the then manager, Makoto Teguramori.

A relatively low-key documentary by a British-based group, this recalls Neil Cantwell and Tim Grabham's 'KanZeOn', a documentary about traditional Japanese music. Focusing largely on interviews with the fans, players and manager involved, and Gary Lineker, it keeps things relatively simple and doesn't force sentimentality on what is an emotive subject. Any emotion intended is from a largely punk soundtrack, to reflect the more boisterous aspects of Japanese football fan culture.

Up until 1992 when the J League formed, football teams, very much like baseball teams in Japan, were owned by companies. The formation of the professional J League was to eliminate this corporate association, with teams to be named after their location and form a bond with the local community. Enthusiasm, as Gary Lineker testifies to, was big among fans.


Vegalta Sendai, founded in 1988 as the Tohoku Electric Power Co. Soccer Club, were part of a J League expansion, switching to the professional league in Division 2 in 1999 under their current name. However, due to limited success, the team struggled to gain any great affinity with the local community. Though being established in Division 1 from 2010 onwards and the 2011 earthquake created this bond, with the Vegalta success giving the community a distraction, an inspiration and a wider sense of community.

The complete fairy tale ending would be that Vegalta would have won the 2012 season, around only eighteen months since the disaster itself. Though this was not to be, Sanfrecce Hiroshima taking that honour. Though, unlike the Leicester City story (Gary Lineker's interview clearly done before last season's victory), their failure makes the story more human, and puts the perspective back onto the community itself and how far they had been able to come in such a short period of time. 

Monday 2 January 2017

Every 14 Days...(35)


Golazo! (Andreas Campomar)

No, not the title music from Channel 4's 1990s 'Football Italia' - well, maybe - but the story of football in Latin America (it's was £3.99 and I needed a book to read). Andreas Campomar is a man, supposedly the great-grand-nephew of Enrique Buero, the Uruguayan who convinced Jules Rimet to hold the first World Cup there so they could win it.

Starting from the points of origin in the Nineteenth Century, it goes on to chart the rise of The Beautiful in each of the South America's nations, and Mexico, and how each adopted it in their own way, right up to the point when Messi couldn't look more disappointed to win the Golden Ball in Brazil.

This is pretty standard stuff. From reading this rather long book, you will learn a fair few results of early South American football matches; how some Scottish and Hungarian men had some influences in the development of the game; and that Campomar doesn't particularly care for the English game (i.e. the English and how they play football - Oi!).

This has its moments, but overall, it's a little long and repetitive, a bit like the last few World Cup finals.

Days to read: 25
Days per book: 15.1


Nomad (Alan Partridge*)

'This certainly is a book that has been written...' ('Homes Under the Hammer' House-valuiser, Dion Dublin)

I, Alan Partridge, am a fraud. Over close to three decades, I have made a concerted, and indeed correct, effort to present myself, Alan Partridge, as a pillar of this modern-day society. By carefully constructing my outward persona as a Daily Mail-reading, un-show-offy-priced-superior-car-driving, sports casual-wearing man you can trust, I have established an above-average career in media broadcasting, free from any questioning by local authorities.

But this, I can now confirm, is hodgepotch! For I, Alan Partridge, am a rouge, a maverick...a nomad.

Having recently de-cluttered some loft space to make room for my Bodymax B2 Indoor Cycle Exercise Bike with LCD monitor, I unearthed a treasure map made by my father. Quickly discovering that any treasure associated with this map was metaphorical, I realised that this was indeed a plotting of my father's route from my childhood home to his failed job interview at Dungeness Nuclear Power Station. Recalling this as a brave and pivotal moment in my father's life, my 'nomad' side felt compelled to recreate his journey.

But no, not in the automotive mode of transport my old-fashioned father took. I, Alan Partridge, choose to use my automated feet, not so much following in the footsteps of my father, but rather treading on his tread marks, with nothing more than what FedEx can courier to the next B'n'B on my route.

What follows is a whirlwind tour from the Carphone Warehouse, Norwich (site of my childhood home) to the Romney Marsh of Kent. There are moments, revelations, and countless opportunities for format ideas, the likes of which Noel Edmonds can only dream of, as I embark on a once in a lifetime journey.

'As a person known for having such low standards, I was mildly impressed!' (Keren 'Bananarama' Woodward)

*Once again, I wish to pledge that, contrary to controversial e-rumours on the world wide website, Steve Coogan, Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons (whoever they are!) wrote not a jot of this mini-masterpiece. Every ruddy word was written by me, Alan Partridge.

Days to read: 12
Days per book: 15.1


The Door (Magda Szabó)

This book is a bit of a reverse shit sandwich, in that it starts a bit shit, it then gets better, but then goes back to being a bit shit again by the end.

A young writer, seemingly an autobiographical version of Szabó herself, moves into a new flat in Budapest with her academic husband. The residency is managed by the elderly Emerence, a bit of a twat-bitch in all fairness. It's fair to say the trio don't really get along when Emerence takes on the additional role of looking after the young couple's flat for them as well. Over time, the two females grow accustomed to each other and accept each other's idiosyncrasies, however much they still appear to despise each other.

To start, this all feels a bit sentimental and 'tragic lives' and I was none too impressed. But, sticking with it, things improved as the two grow to learn about each other's lives in more detail, trying to understand the other's perspective. However, the building-to-the-inevitable end is a little annoying, as the pair fail to fully understand each other, as you fail to understand either of them at all.

The two lead characters are poor, neither in the slightest bit likeable, even for a person from Watford. Putting the two one side for a moment though, the dynamic between them developing as each comes to terms with the other is worthy of some merit. Though by the end, you suddenly remember that you have no time for either character: the young writer a spoilt brat that would fail to wipe her own arse with something she had written; and the elderly woman one to stubborn, cold and set-in-her-ways (with pride) to have any interest in trying to form any sort of meaningful interest in.

Maybe I'm being an old-fashioned, bigoted man, too set-in-my-ways to understand either character fully. But for a character-driven piece, what could have been decent is ultimately let down by personalities that, well, just leave a bit of a taste of shit in your mouth.

Days to read: 14 (woohoo!)

Days per book: 15.1