tripu

¡Madre mía, qué talento!

Un vídeo que grabé en octubre paseando por el campus de Birkbeck y de SOAS, y que edité el otro día para mi yo del futuro.

The absolute genius of Tim Minchin and a very different take on rationalism (audio only):

He is, like George Carlin, a brilliant comedian with a soft spot for science.

Watch the music video before reading the rest of this post.

How was that? Did you feel that something didn’t quite fit in the picture?

That is the music video for 海雪 (umiyuki, “Ocean Snow”) the first single by Jero (ジェロ), released last February in Japan. Jero is a young black American from Pittsburgh… who sings enka.

Enka is a form of Japanese popular music which was at its height in Japan during the postwar period. Its main themes are loss, loneliness, unfulfilled love, even suicide. Female singers of enka have been especially popular. I can’t help noticing some striking resemblances to Spanish copla; not only in the themes, but also in the staging, the perceived attitudes of the performers, their use of vibrato and the way both genres have gradually become regarded by their respective younger generations as “uncool” and affected.

For samples of enka, watch 修羅の花 (shura no hana, “Flower of Carnage”), the beautiful theme song for 修羅雪姫 (shurayukihime, “Lady Snowblood”) sung by Meiko Kaji and later reused by Tarantino in “Kill Bill”; or listen to 川の流れのように (kawa no nagare no yôni, “Like the Currents of the River”) by Hibari Misora, which at some point was proclaimed “the greatest Japanese song of all time” (?).

As Jerome C. White himself explains in an interview with CNN International, his maternal grandmother was a native of Yokohama who married an African American. Jerome was born and grew up in Pennsylvania, close to his Japanese grandmother, listening and singing enka even before he could understand the lyrics. Apparently, his debut has been a great success in Japan, where black urban cultures from the United States have been trendy for some years now (as one can gather by the surprisingly large number of shops selling hip-hop-related products in cities like Tokyo and Kyoto).

This form of strong cultural hybridisation is still rather unusual in Japan. Although we can find similar cases in other countries, where an “outsider” is “allowed” to succeed in an area that is traditionally perceived as idiosyncratic to that culture, Japan is (still) among the world’s most ethnically homogeneous countries. Of course, Jero is not the first performer of enka born outside Japan, but I don’t think that there has been any other gaijin before him who brought such distinctive traits of race, nationality, culture and language with him to the genre, all the while being supported by the industry and the media.

That said, I must confess that I can’t see the influence of rap in his music. Would you have been able to tell, had you listened to umiyuki with your eyes closed?

きのうこのビデオをしました。しゃしんはきょねん私の日本にりょこうでとったしゃしんです。おんがくは川井憲次の「GHOST IN THE SHELL」のソウンド-トラックです。

ところで今日日本語のじゅぎょうをさいかいしました！

Richard Dawkins prompts me to a moral dilemma that is also a paradox: I want to worship Richard Dawkins as a god, but I can’t because I am an atheist myself.

I must confess that two days ago I had no idea who George Carlin was.

I got to know him only yesterday, thanks to one of @ampajaro’s tweets announcing his death first thing in the morning. That was followed by a chain of entries coming from a few of the blogs I (helplessly try to) keep up with.

I have read such striking superlatives about this comedian that I youtubed him. After watching a few of his routines I now feel that I have to share and honour his talent. So here you have two pieces of different shows by George Carlin. Caution — strong opinions (and language) ahead.

The first video is basically about religion being a pile of bullshit (kudos, we need more of that nowadays):

The second video is a somewhat furious yet brilliant sermon against those who are against abortion. (I personally don’t agree with all of what Carlin says in this video. I am not against abortion. But unlike most of other left-wing people I know, I am not that sure that I am undoubtfully in favour of abortion, either. Also, I don’t buy the theory that equates abortion to women’s rights, and to “the choice of one woman”. In any case, I’m an atheist and my position has nothing to do with religion, tradition or customs, so I very much support — and enjoy — Carlin’s mockery of religion’s mean and simplistic approach to abortion):

What I admire the most about George Carlin is the technique — the round, perfectly-delivered script. He can speak for ten minutes without stumbling over a single syllable, without humming or hesitating. Weaving long enumerations of words or examples, putting the stress in the right place and stopping precisely where required.

And I love his strong and brave position on issues as sticky as religion, politics, taboos, gender, death, PC language and abortion. Even if at times he looks more like a fanatical preacher than a comedian and some of his arguments seem debatable to me. But hey, conservatism needs to be balanced. Don’t miss his “Seven dirty words” routine (“shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits”), which apparently caused a radio station to be sued and sparkled a major debate about censorship in the American airwaves. Here, the video audio in YouTube.

On Sunday, two videos that struck me recently.

One video for the left hemisphere of your brain. Mathematics, Japan and genius. Part of a documentary about the amazing Daniel Tammet.

The second video is aimed at your right hemisphere. So much beauty and so many ways to invoke it. Imogen Heap knows a few of them.

…found out there.

“Say ‘What’ Again” by Jarratt Moody. A brilliant reinterpretation of one of “Pulp Fiction”‘s most memorable scenes: