Sunday, September 30, 2007

BORIS Mania

I think everything that needs to be said about this band has already been said a million times, so i won't get into how awesome I think this band is. I mean, it doesn't get any better than a fucking noise/stoner/sludge band that also happens to have a amazingly gorgeous big-breasted guitar player (Wata) who looks so beautiful, but shreds so evil. Check out the album cover for "Feedbacker", it's truly woody-inducing. Maybe we'll be lucky and get a nude photobook of her included with the next CD.

Anyway, enough about my sick fantasies of mounting Wata. Let's get to the music. First of all, there's a shitload of releases. I mean a shitload. And there's like 30 versions of the same album, which make them a very collectable band. So you can easily go broke just collecting Boris CD's and LP's. Or you can just download their entire discography from a torrent file, which is pretty easy to find actually.

The first Boris CD I ever bought was Feedbacker, and i think that one's still one of my favorites. But I'd have to say my personal favorite so far is DRONEVIL, it's a 2-CD set, but you're supposed to play the 2 CD's on 2 different stereos simultaneously. Well, I don't have two damn stereos and neither do most people, so I just mixed the two discs in ProTools and burned everything onto 1 track. Aaahhhhhhh, DRONEVIL, it IS the shit. I get a metal boner listening this, it's the epitamy of doom.

My other personal favorites are FLOOD, ABSOLUTEGO, and AMPLIFIER WORSHIP. The aforementioned albums are all long drone concept albums clocking in at over an hour, and that's the BORIS I prefer at this point. I have 7 or 8 Boris CD's which is nothing, considering that many of their fanbase collect EVERY version of every LP and CD. I like too many other bands to be just a collector of BORIS. I've heard most of the other limited LP's and some of them are not necessary anyway. I downloaded mp3's of most of those and made handmade CD versions. For example, there are 3 volumes of "The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked" which are good, but not absolutely necessary. Also, there are 2 completely different versions of VEIN, a hardcore version and a drone version. They're good too, but not essential.

There's also an soundtrack CD to an imaginary film called "Mabuta No Uta", which is really nice. There's 3 or 4 versions of that i think, and to make things even more frustrating, each version has different packaging and tracks that can't be found on the other version(s).

If you don't like the long drone/sludge so much and just wanna hear some great Sabbath-like balls to the wall ROCK, pick up PINK, HEAVY ROCKS or AKUMA NO UTA (which is actually a good sampling of all their flavors, so a good place to dive in head first). Boris has a little something for everyone I think, and that's part of what makes them so unique. They're not afraid to limit themselves and each subsequent release shows them growing.

A few of my other current favorites is the Sunn O))) Boris collaboration "ALTAR" and the MERZBOW / BORIS collaboration aptly titled "Sun Baked Snow Cave".

Like I said before, you don't need to buy everything they've ever put out, but just about everything I've heard so far is good in some way or another. I'm really looking forward to hearing their new CD with Ghost guitarist, Michio Kurihara, I heard nothing but good things about it.

There's tons of information and resources on Boris, and just about everyone and his dog has blogged about them in some way, so that's why I'm gonna keep this post relatively short. You can start by checking out their website at http://homepage1.nifty.com/boris/

Friday, September 14, 2007

STAR TREK TOS HD DVD

Holy shit. Is this necessary? I already have the supposedly "remastered" STAR TREK TOS on standard DVD format, the ones that come in the hard plastic cases and those are just fine for me. I haven't even got around to watching ANY of the extras and I'll probably never get around to watching them all. So here comes another cash grab from Paramount Home Entertainment, announcing the US HD DVD release of Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 1 on 20th November 2007 priced at $217.99 SRP. Here's the description I lifted from another site:

"See The Original Series as never before when the legendary first season arrives for the first time ever in a 10-disc HD DVD/DVD combo disc set. Meticulously remastered from the original camera negative specifically for this high-definition release, each classic episode is presented in pristine condition with state-of-the-art digital visual effects. 1960s special effects have been replaced with 21st century computer-generated imagery to give new depth and atmosphere to various elements including the main title sequence, the galaxy shots frequently seen from the Enterprise's bridge, the battle scenes, planets and alien ships, some of the matte paintings used as backdrops for new worlds, as well as the Enterprise and other Starships, which have been replaced with state-of-the-art CGI-created ships. The new computer-generated Enterprise is based on the exact measurements of the original model, which now rests in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The refurbished episodes also feature higher quality sound for the famous opening theme. The original score by Emmy Award-winning composer Alexander Courage has been re-recorded in state-of-the-art digital stereo audio with an orchestra and a female singer belting out the famous vocals. A digitally remastered version of William Shatner's classic original recording of the 38-word "Space, the final frontier..." monologue continues to open each episode.

In addition, the extraordinary set features true HD audio and exclusive HD DVD interactive features produced by New Wave Entertainment. Interactive menus and a "Starfleet Access" interface will allow viewers to activate icons which provide such features as Picture in Picture video commentaries and an interactive tour of the Starship Enterprise. Both the standard definition and high definition presentations also include rare on-set home movie footage, an inside perspective on what it took to transport Trek into the 21st century and much more. Finally the set comes housed in a futuristic clear case."


OK. Great. But I'm quite happy watching the original ones. I like the crappy cheap special effects and I don't need to see any added digital enhancements, thank you very much. This brings up the issue that arises AGAIN and AGAIN about adding digital effects to old movies. IT SHOULDN'T BE MESSED WITH. They're not even giving fans the whole picture. If you take a look at the startrek.com website and click on the remasterd episodes links you'll see pictures of the remastered effects shown in 1:85 ratio. There is plenty of room to construct a 1:85 frame from the original 35mm negatives of these shows. So probably in a few years, you'll see another WIDESCREEN version released saying that IT is the DEFINITIVE STAR TREK release. So it goes on and on.

I'm no rocket scientist, but wouldn't it be physically impossible to high definition version of a 40 year old show? This set will not look much better than the regular edition, which is selling for about 60 bucks now. Studios are basically ripping off consumers if they're releasing HD versions of old films. Would you buy an HD version of the original Dracula? No, I don't think you would unless you're a complete clod. HD reproductions of older films and TV shows will look even grainier than before, due to the fact that the computers responsible for creating the higher resolution output will attempt to compensate for the initial low-res by adding more pixels in the empty spaces. This has been proven by many people who've complained that "Blu-Ray" versions of older films looked worse than the standard DVD editions. This whole current trend of Blu-Ray and HD DVD is good for people who only like films that have been made in the past few years, but for people like me, the majority of films I watch are pre-1980, so Blue Ray and HD are useless and I can't understand why people are shelling out big bucks for these old films that have been "meticulously" restored to look like crap.

The only plus point I can see is that the package design looks pretty awesome, however, it doesn't in any way merit spending over 200 bucks. Keep your originals.

http://www.filmjunk.com/2007/09/04/star-trek-the-original-series-hd-dvd-features-revealed/

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The education system in Japan, teaching kids, violent crime in Japan, suicide, murder, deterioration of Japanese society & other crap

Teaching kids is for the birds. First of all, it's not the kids fault. Stupid kid, stupid parent, right? Stupidity is inherited I believe. i live in Japan, and I teach kids only on Monday, and thank ____ for that. (I don't believe in GOD™, that's why I left a blank) I can't believe that some people do this all week, 6 days a week. Good Christ, I'd have been committed by now if I had to teach kids every day.

It seems to have been the trend in Japan for the last 5 or 6 years + and it doesn't matter whether kids are interested in learning English or not, they're pretty much forced to attend English classes as early as 6 months old! Learning a second language when they're young is the ideal time to to do it, but a 6-month old baby doesn't even have their own language figured out yet, let alone a foreign language. Parents should at least wait until their child is old enough to make that choice for themselves.

Parents in Japan just send their kids to English school because that's what their friends are doing, and their friends, and so on and so on. It's just another example of the ruthless competitiveness this country is known for. The thinking is that if their kids aren't going to English school, their friends think they're poor, or weird or don't care about their kids' education and future. What a bunch of shit THAT IS.

What really pisses me off to no end is that when the mothers bring their kids to school, they are chit-chatting and gossiping like it's a fucking café, and I have to strain my voice sometimes just so it's loud enough for the kids to hear over their mothers' mundane chatter. Japanese wives are very good at certain things and one of those things is waste their husbands' salary. At least if you're forcing your kids to go to school, please TAKE A FUCKING INTEREST in what your kids are learning. If you wanna chat, piss off with ya and go home.

The school I teach is not that bad actually. Yeah, there's some bad kids, stupid kids and just down-right evil kids, but it doesn't even compare to some of the horror stories I've heard from other teachers. If there's so much violence in school's these days, why isn't there a camera monitoring every classroom? Now, before you think that's a little "extreme", why don't you read a few little bedtime stories about things that have happened in Japan over the last few years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50678-2004Aug8.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16500163/site/newsweek/
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0509/050924-violence.html
http://web-japan.org/trends98/honbun/ntj980401.html
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/384109
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?nn20051007f1.htm

Here's a few more little "news bits". some of them are not school related, but they are included just to give you an idea of the nature of some of the violent crimes in the last few years in Japan.

"TOKYO — 17-year-old boy stabs his mother to death. Having killed his mother as she slept, the boy cut off her arm and head with a saw. Spray-painted her arm white and stuck it in a potted plant. Put her head in a sports bag and carried it with him to an Internet cafe, where he spent two hours watching rap music videos in a private booth. He then took a taxi to a police station in his town in northern Japan, where he surrendered the head and told the officers, "It didn't matter who I killed." It's pretty hard to swallow such a story, but it's real, and this kind of shit seems to be going on regularly in Japan."

Over the last several months, there has been a series of killings in which the bodies have been cut up or disposed of in sickening ways. Who's to blame? TV? Violent Manga? Movies? Music? There's a huge sense that a country once bound by tight family values and community ties is deteriorating into something quite ugly indeed. Here's more...

"In December, a Tokyo woman confessed to killing her allegedly adulterous husband hitting him with a wine bottle and then cutting his body into pieces. The parts were found scattered across two city wards; his head was buried in a suburban park."

"a 21-year-old Tokyo man was accused of killing his younger sister. He claimed he lashed out violently after she belittled him for his failure to win acceptance to dental school. Police said he hacked her body into pieces and stuffed the parts into four garbage bags."

"In March, the strangled body of a young, female English-language teacher from Britain was discovered buried in a sand-filled bathtub in a university student's Tokyo apartment. The suspect eluded a police raid and is still on the run."

"Woman in Yokohama randomly stabs her 2-year-old child in a shopping mall."

"Couple accused of dumping their toddler son's body on a mountainside after he suffocated in the helmet compartment of their motorcycle."

"a 14-year-old killer deposited the severed head of an 11-year-old child at the gates of an elementary school in Kobe, and taunted police and citizens with threats to kill again before he was finally caught."

OK. Who's to blame? It's easy to lay blame on Japan's many social ills or America's negative influence, or even violent games, movies, music, manga, etc but I can't help thinking it's due to all this pressure and competitiveness brought on by Japanese society. Firstly it starts in the home, then secondly, in the schools. Kids are so pressured in this country to do well in school that some actually commit suicide because they fail a test, or they lose a game. And we're not talking just high school kids, we're talking about elementary and junior high school kids too.

Another fact you should keep in mind is that Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. On average, over 80 people EACH DAY off themselves, most commonly by hanging themselves or by jumping in front of a train.

Here's a personal account of one of my students, and I'm not going to mention any names for obvious reasons. She's only 5 and she has been attending a special English school for the last few years, and her English is pretty good actually. Her English is good because she has been going to school from 9:00 in the morning til 5:00 in the afternoon 5 days a week and she can ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH in the classroom. Then, her mother also brings her to the school that I teach for another hour. I can't help notice her mothers' stern look the whole time, she never smiles and she watches her daughter like a hawk, just waiting for her to fuck up, so that she can scold her. You can even sense a certain fear in the child, when she answers a question. It's truly sad and i feel really sorry for the kid, because she hasn't been given any choice in the matter. This may just be one of those kids that grows up later in life and suddenly snaps because she's been carefully controlled her whole life, and now she needs to feel freedom...

The current school system in the U.S., Canada, Japan and many other countries has done little else than force schools to teach kids how to beat those standardized tests. It's a common complaint for young teachers that they feel like they've become a slave to this nonsense. Those tests are fucking meaningless and everyone knows it.

I see a tremendous failure of the educational system every day in Japan, bad system, bad teachers who don't give a shit about students, too many classroom hours, no interaction between students and teachers, many cases of teachers molesting and raping their students, it's fucking pathetic actually. I don't want to call kids stupid, because I don't think that's the problem, exactly. They're just so incapable of forming complete, written or spoken thoughts with actual grammar and correct spelling. There was an article in VICE magazine a number of years ago that reproduced a bunch of essays handed in by Grade 12 high school students in the U.S. and they were riddled with spelling errors, terrible grammar and incomprehensible script.

What's the solution? I don't know, actually, but I think parents can stop by letting their kids have mind of their own and stop forcing them into doing shit they have no interest in doing. (How man of you remember taking piano lessons?) One thing is CRYSTAL CLEAR. Many parents in Japan are just plain STUPID. And also, be a good parent and do shit with your kids, don't just leave them in their rooms playing Nintendo DS.

If the U.S. and Japan doesn't get their shit together, they will fall desperately behind the rest of the world. They already ARE falling behind. THIS IS a global marketplace now, y'know?

Tim Berne's Bloodcount Boxset

This is awesome news, so I thought I'd share it. Media: 2CD+DVD - STREET DATE 9/18. PLEASE NOTE: DVD IS 2-SIDED & INCLUDES NTSC+PAL! A double disc boxed set of UNRELEASED material from Tim Berne's legendary BLOODCOUNT quartet uncovered by TB himself & artfully mastered by DAVID TORN. BLOODCOUNT at its best w/JIM BLACK (drums), CHRIS SPEED (tenor, clarinet) & MICHAEL FORMANEK (contrabass). Includes 2 audio cds both recorded live in 1997 AND a DVD, brilliantly mastered by Bob Ludwig, of their legendary Paris concert in 1994 w/the addition of Marc Ducret on guitar. Can Screwgun be stopped? REGION=0.

Can't wait to seize this one. I hope it's not gonna cost an arm and a leg. I saw it listed on one Japanese site for almost 6,000 yen.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

tits n ass beer

Another classic spoof ad.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

evil beavers vs. miller lite

classic Miller Lite Ad from Swedish advertising geniuses, Traktor.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Jukka Bros.

Classic MTV ad. Wish i could find the other ones. There were a series of 3 or 4 I believe.

Reach and Frequency

I remember seeing this ad when I was working in advertising in Vancouver, and I thought it was hilarious. It's kind of a spoof of how free and crazy advertising agencies were in the 70's, with people sleeping around with other industry people. Great ad.

Spiders On Drugs

This is pretty funny. I remember these ads very well, and if you're Canadian I'm sure you do too. Sure brings back some good memories. I learned a lot of shit from those "Hinterland Who's Who" Interludes.