As I wrote in a comment thread last night, I have a thing for odd/awkward dancing. It definitely explains why I like Halcali so much, and back in the day Puffy. It’s also why I absolutely love Andre 3000′s “Hey Ya!” video (sure, there’s also the fact that it’s an impossibly catchy tune that I can’t get out of my head, but Andre’s dance routine is what keeps me watching the video). I’ll even stand up and admit to liking Fine Young Cannibals all those years ago because of the weird foot dance the guitarist and bassist used to do. I don’t know why I have this obsession for something so unimportant, but it just gets me everytime. I remember a great Beck show in Montreal back in 97 where he was really putting on the moves, but even then, he was almost too slick. It’s the simplicity and awkwardness that I like. The worse you are at dancing, the better. It’s especially satisfying when it comes from something you would not expect it from.

This is probably something I should have kept to myself.

It’s a sad day today as my iBook (which marked my first foray into the Mac world) has died. It got dropped on its side a month or two ago, and the power plug got bent, as well as the insides. We still managed to get it working until now, but you would sometimes have to play around with the plug. Today it just stopped. There’s no way to turn it on as it’s completely dead (no life in the battery). I brought it to a store that sells Macs near my place just to see if the problem was with the plug, but a new plug didn’t help. I know how expensive it is to get these things fixed (it’s not under the warranty anymore), so I don’t think there’s much I can do about it. I might bring it to the new Apple Store that opens next week in Ginza to see what they have to say, but I just can’t see myself paying 50-60 000 yen for repairs (I checked the US site for info and that seems to be the average price of repair for an iBook if it’s not something major). It’s not like I was using it anymore, but Yuko now has no computer at home, which means we’ll have to share the iMac. Fast-user switching is finally going to come in handy, but it still won’t be as nice as when we each had our machines to use anytime or anywhere (she won’t be able to write at her desk where all her books and papers are).

I hate it when computers die. Same thing happened to my old Compaq laptop (problem with the power plug).

An unfortunate gray sky, but nice designs none the less.

Can anyone recommend a good place to have business cards done? I’m looking for something not too expensive, and I would want double-sided cards in color.

In the most recent issue of AXIS there was an article describing toy maker Takara’s new foray into the world of design goods. I wanted to mention this but totally forgot, and something I read yesterday in another magazine reminded me of it. They actually have an English site with loads of info on the new line, including some pics of the products (which are all gorgeous). I lust for these.

Earlier today I saw an ad on TV with Halcali performing a song (I suppose it’s their upcoming single, “Strawberry Chips”) while dressed as Christmas trees. It’s the cutest thing. You can view part of the clip at their site. When you get there, click the star to start, and then click on the Halcali logo coming down the road to view the clip. Link via Patrick.

A tiny shrine in Nara. I spotted a few of these.

While on the subject of shorts (with yesterday’s Resfest event), Jesper sent me a link to the following site. I haven’t had time to check out the shorts yet, but it looks like an interesting selection.

Just spent the day at Resfest, which took place at Laforet in Harajuku. Here’s my roundup.

Johnny Hardstaff
Things started off with a segment where Johnny Hardstaff, creator of this year’s festifval identity, explained how the project was conceived. It was an interesting talk, if a bit short (40 minutes doesn’t seem so long when he has to stop every few sentences to be translated in Japanese). He was quite frank about how this project was him going back to basics (creating everything himself in a tiny room), and he felt that his last few big-budget projects were mistakes and that he sort of let things get out of control. It’s also worth noting that the indentity had no CG in it, and is created with a mechanical doll. I mention this because all of the past things I’ve seen by him (including his Radiohead video) were CG/motion graphics, and he said that the new thing he’s working on now is again with animatronics.

Resfest Shorts #3
This year’s selection was excellent, with no stinkers in the bunch. My favorites were the hilarious yet cool ROOM SERVICE by Junji Kojima (of Teevee Graphics), the intensive THE PERPETUAL LIFE OF JIM ALBERS by Matt Goldman, and a really wacky and witty Finnish animation called TREEVIL. Rocky Morton’s THE M WORD was also quite good. It’s just too bad I don’t get to see the two other shorts programs.

By Design
This is my favorite program every year, and it’s how I decide which day I’ll get a day pass for. There were some really nice shorts, as usual, but the genre is definitely developing cliches. I’ve pretty much had my fill of items separating and being tagged, as well as high-pitched metallic noises. Of note were a couple of music videos, one for a song called “In This City” by Enon, and Four Tet’s “She Moves She” (I’m biased regarding this last as I absolutely love the song). MK12 made another great appearance with ULTRALOVENINJA, and the David Ellis directed LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT was mesmerizing.

Resmix Electronica
This is like the Cinema Electronica program shown in North America, except that it’s all Japanese artists. I was really impressed by a lot of videos in this section, a lot of things I’d never seen (I don’t watch the music video channels that much because I have no patience for all the crappy stuff that you have to endure until you get to a good video). I was shocked though when I saw the video for the song “The Attack of Ninja” by DJ Uppercut, which starts off as a direct ripoff of MK12′s ULTRALOVENINJA short. It eventually turns into something a bit different, but the color palette stays very similar, and the whole idea of movement remains the same. It’s a real shame that a video that has a lot of cool original ideas would copy something else so blatantly. As for the good stuff, I’d take note of “III” by Cubejuice and “Devil’s Organ” by Great 3 (I’d never heard of these two bands, and I really liked the tracks), The Orb’s “From a Distance” (brilliant use of Japanese cartoon character Doraemon), Sketch Show’s “Turn Turn” (this is a video I’d already seen many times, and still enjoyed it), and Suneohair’s video (I loved this for the fact that it basically plays out as an anime episode, with the track barely being heard in the background, behind all of the dialogue, like it would in a TV show or movie).

Michel Gondry Retrospective
I’m already a fan of his videos, and this was a chance to see a bunch of things I’d never seen, like his earliest videos for French artists, which are every bit as good if not better than all his more famous ones. You need to see Jean-Francois Coen’s “La tour de pise” which has every word in the lyrics being illustrated by an image of a neon shop or advertising sign, or even IAM’s “Le mia” with its fast advancing camera movement. They also showed quite a few of his commercial work, which share the same ingenuity as his video work. I was also suprised to see that he had done the video for the Kylie Minogue single “Come Into My World.” I’d never seen the whole thing, flipping to another channel as soon as it came on, and that’s a shame because it’s an absolute brilliant video.

So all in all, I had a great time, except for maybe a sore ass (the seats weren’t very comfortable). I also picked up the lastest issue of RES, which I haven’t picked up in a year or two. I used to be a subscriber, but I felt like the magazine got lame and gave up on it. I’ve been thinking of subscribing again though because each issue now comes with a DVD full of videos and shorts, which I wouldn’t mind having.

TRICK is by far my wife’s favorite series, and it’s gained quite a following in Japan. It started out as two series on TV (Yuko has the second series’ DVD set), which then lead to a movie being released last year (we also own the DVD of this), and now the present TV season sees a 3rd series. It stars Yukie Nakama (who I admit to absolutely loving) and Hiroshi Abe as an odd pair who are constantly drawn together to uncover tricksters and such. The show is wacky, and I finally got a chance to see the movie with English subtitles. Now I see why Yuko never stops raving about it. It’s the excentricities that really stand out, and I’m not even catching all of it (for instance, they’ll have an old idol play a character that kills someone violently), but enough to have fallen in love with the show. I think I’ll start watching the TV show with Yuko, even if I can’t understand all of it (I find myself understanding the jokes, but not all of the dialogue that relates to plot points).

A friend was telling me the other day of a Japanese porn video she had recently seen. It was about ijime (bullying), a very popular theme in the Japanese pornographic world. In it, a student was bullied into raping one of his teachers, and by the end of the video he committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. A far cry from the silicone fantasies that hail from the San Fernando Valley.

I think I’ve already mentioned a few times the fact that this year as seen me retreating from Japanese music. That’s not to say that I don’t still enjoy most of my faves, but I think a lack of newness has sort of pushed me into different music scenes to find things that give me my much loved weeklong obsession hits. This week I do find myself listening to a few recent Japanese releases, one of them by Pizzicato Five influenced (right down to the fashion friendly music videos and style) Capsule who have released a new album, PHONY PHONIC. The music itself is alright, nothing new and a direct throwback to the old Shibuya-kei scene, but it does feature some beautifully stylish music videos for their singles that you could easily mistaken for something that THE INTERNATIONAL PLAYBOY & PLAYGIRL era P5 would have released. Nothing wrong with a bit of pretty eye candy, especially when accompanied by sounds that just seem to fit (like P5 did so well).

I’m also enjoying a compilation released a few months ago from Escalator Records called ESC-CORE that sees Escalator mainstays (Yukari Fresh, Miniflex, Neil and Iraiza, Cubismo Grafico) doing covers of label mates. Some nice tracks in there, especially the Miniflex cover of “Far Eastman.” A Bungalow Records compilation is also seeing high rotation in my iPod and iTunes, this one featuring remixes of loads of Bungalow artists. I’m also surprised at how I’m really enjoying Plus-Tech Squeeze Box’s FAKEVOX album. I wrote a post a few weeks back about loving their “Early Riser” single, but a listen to the rest of the album at first left me feeling like I’d heard all of these sounds countless times before (Momus made a correct link to Yukari Fresh, which I hadn’t realized from the single alone). But I’ve gone back to the album a few times, mostly to listen to “Early Riser,” and I’ll admit that the album has grown on me. I guess a bit of retro Shibuya-kei is not so bad for you, as long as consumed in small doses…

We leave the Tokyo University campus behind, and head back to Nara. Yes, another gate, but this time I focus on the handle, which I found quite interesting.

Kurt Easterwood has just put up a gallery of black and white shots he recently took in Ikebukuro, the area of Tokyo where I live. I think it’s something I also need to do, to document the places I enjoy. I’ll try taking pics this weekend for next week’s series of daily pics.

Inside the campus.