His fingers muscled from almost a century of weaving, Yasujiro Yamaguchi worked the humming loom in his private workshop. Patiently lacing golden threads through a warp of auburn silk, he fashioned a bolt of kimono fabric blooming with an autumn garden in shades of tea green, ginger and plum.

But Yamaguchi, like Japan's signature kimono, is slipping into winter. At 102, he is among the last master weavers of Nishijin, the country's most celebrated kimono district, and his pace has slowed. He rubbed the morning chill from his knuckles, fitted his hunched shoulders deeper inside his indigo jacket and resolutely pushed on.
...
But today, as a result of globalization and rapidly changing demographics, the kimono business has collapsed, its future in question. Sales are expected to sink to an all-time low this year, even as Japan has emerged from recession to experience its longest economic boom since World War II.

The prosperity has come with an altered set of cultural values. This is a country of manga comics and glittering animation. The rising moguls driving the new economy are more likely to buy muscled chrome from one of Tokyo's expanding list of Ferrari dealerships than drop their spoils on Kyoto silk.

As the kimono becomes more museum piece than couture item, what once made it quintessentially Japanese is gradually fading. Market realities have forced kimono makers to eschew expensive Japanese silk. As a result, more than 90 percent of new kimonos and obi made in Japan, including most of those from Nishijin's most venerable textile houses, are now woven from cheaper imported silk.

Twilight for the Kimono - washingtonpost.com

Revealing more about himself than he ever has, Garry Trudeau gives us tantalizing clues about what's behind his venerable comic strip's recent burst of genius, and pain.

As notewothy might put it, this is a gold star article. Read the whole thing. It's a rare insight into the world of Garry Trudeau, who is nothing short of a pop-culture hero of mine. It's rare there is anything written about Trudeau that isn't an op-ed either complaining or cheering about this work.

Doonesbury's War - washingtonpost.com

The old man rose painfully as the performance ended. The applause built slowly from a single clap of hands to a tumult. Harold Pinter, playwright and actor, weakened by the years and by illness, had just performed “Krapp’s Last Tape,” by his friend and fellow Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett.
...
“And all along Pinter makes you feel the gravity, the meticulousness, the sheer power of his endeavor,” Mr. Nightingale [of The Times of London] wrote. “This is an old man’s last-gasp search for a meaning he knows he’ll never find.”

wow Pinter does Beckett - terrifing, awesome
I would love to witness it

edit
part of me reflects that in a sense i've been in the hinterland - upon occasion - and one day, barring car accidents or some other sudden exit, i'll face the silence that follows twilight

Life, Meet Art: Pinter’s Last Stand - New York Times

noteworthy wrote:

This list is drawn from the second edition of "The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" (St. Martin's Griffin, $24.95), edited by Peter M. Nichols and published in 2004. For additional information about the list, read Peter M. Nichols's preface, or A. O. Scott's introduction.

How many have you seen?

quite a few and reminded me of a few i wanted to see or see again
but one or two little disagreements no Toystory 2, Moulin Rouge(2001), no House of Flying Daggers and no Save the Tiger (which is one of my all time favourite movies [Jack Lemmon is cool]) or Alfie (1966) (quintessentially British Michael Caine movie)

ahhh lists, lists, lists

edit
no Blade Runner which is my favourite film
*headdesk*

RE: The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made

This is really well done - it is a nice, short stunningly visual presentation that highlights the unique perspective of the Asian artist, and also gives a small dose of geography.

To start the presentation, Click on the Orange and White Box that say FACING EAST.

ENJOY!
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""Facing East: Portraits from Asia," on view July 1 through September 4 at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, explores how portraits expressed identity in Asia and the Near East. Paintings, sculpture, and photographs of Egyptian pharaohs, Chinese empresses, Japanese actors and a host of other subjects, reveal the unique ways that the self was understood, represented, and projected in Asian art.

The exhibition includes approximately 70 masterpieces from the collections of Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Islamic and Ancient Near Eastern art at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art. A number of the works from the Sackler and Freer galleries will be on view for the first time."

FACING EAST - Portraits from Asia - A Fine Art Perspective

Some movies need the big screen. The Abyss comes to mind--nothing like feeling totally surrounded by water in the dark with a huge screen towering above you. So, when all the hype about this great scary movie, The Descent, was going on, and I figured I was due for a fright (I can only handle one every so often, being overly imaginative. Saw about did me in for two years), my boyfriend and I took the plunge and went to see The Descent. We both figured it was "big screen worthy" (sort of like being sponge-worthy, I suppose), since you want to feel swallowed by the cave.

Was I ever disappointed. I'm shocked with the IMDB ratings and the slew of "wow, greatest thing ever" reveiews. I don't want to offer up spoilers to prove my points, so I'll just rant thusly:

1. Other than an initial "shock value" moment at the start, there isn't anything special about the scares in this movie.

2. I hate people that don't learn from their mistakes. You run away and get separated and you might get picked off. So, after doing something that stupid once, don't you think you wouldn't do it again after regrouping? Yeah, that's what I thought.

3. Make up your mind--are they going to be tough chicks who are logical or are they going to be illogical, whiny, grudge-holding, screaming women. Flip flopping between the two extremes whenever it's convenient for the plot just irritates me.

4. DO NOT USE FLARES IN A CAVE. Duh.

5. All of the inconsistencies, stupidities, etc made it so bad that I actually was hoping for them all to die horrible, horrible deaths (I won't tell you if they do or not). I wanted to laugh, not jump, and I came in there wanting to be truly terrified. I wanted to be so scared that going out to my car in the dark for the next few weeks on my way to the gym tripped me out (this happened with Saw. I thought I was going to die I was so fidgety in the dark for weeks. Yes, I'm a wuss).

6. I got creepier "oooh scary" feelings from the Ted the Caver story on the internet (http://www.holyshiite.com/caver/) which I had read prior to going to this movie. So I was hyped up and ready. Pity it couldn't live up to it.

/rant

I honestly don't get it why everyone's saying it's such a masterpiece of horror and a "gorefest". It's really not. Too many errors. Too many inconsistencies. I just can't believe so many people find it great. I'm sincerely boggled by it.

~Heathyr

ha what a cool review
made me chuckle

The Descent (2005)--Just So Not Worth It

Salman Rushdie sprang to the defence of Guenter Grass on Thursday after Germany's Nobel prize-winning author confessed he was once a teenage member of Hitler's Waffen SS.

Rushdie springs to defence of Grass�|�Top News�|�Reuters.co.uk

Last weekend saw me squeezing through the crowded aisles of the Mandarake comic store in Tokyo's Higashi-Ikebukuro neighborhood on a quest for a Star Wars comic. Specifically, I was looking for fan-created manga revealing the untold love story between C-3P0 and R2-D2.
...
This is the world of doujinshi, or self-published fan fiction -- a part of a healthy Japanese visual arts scene based on the appropriation and reuse of commercial characters.
...
But when it comes to creating derivative works, the commercial comic and anime companies look the other way. As a result there's consumption, but there's creativity too.

If and when Japan does become a major exporter of its unique brand of "cool," I hope it will preserve and export the doujinshi ethic as well. Perhaps America needs to learn more than the difference between Doremon and Pokémon. We need a new way of looking at creativity that borrows and builds on the work of others.

Wired News: Harry Potter Loves Malfoy

Coming soon to a theater near you.

Inspired by Steven Blush's book "American Hardcore: A tribal history" Paul Rachman's feature documentary debut is a chronicle of the underground hardcore punk years from 1979 to 1986. Interviews and rare live footage from artists such as Black Flag, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and the Dead Kennedys.

Don't give me "The Clash" and claim you're punk. We're talking hardcore, right here!

American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980 - 1986

I think being a punk in China and therefore an anti-social element is quite dangerous in and of itself. Just as liking jazz in Eastern Europe during communism was dangerous.

The scene seems split on the most basic issues.

I've never known "a scene" not to be
since when was a "scene" about intellectual coherence or even artistic coherence
clashing memes mixing and swirling, breeding and hybridising is what makes a "scene"

RE: China's Punks Look to Rock