Kimono Day 2010 Highlights

It was Kimono Day in Japantown today.
The weather was perfect, and truly felt like spring had arrived.
Here we see your host crossing the bridge above Geary to enjoy the day.The first performance was very graceful and traditional and sweetly heralded the return of spring.

The kimonos were colorful and springlike.
Then came the second performance which was in a word, bizarre. But in a good way.
I particularly liked this creature.
I have no idea what the creature in red was, but he was fascinating.

Kimono Day Is Coming. Gentlemen Are Also Welcome!

Has San Francisco Finally Arrived?

Though some people might argue that she is risking over exposure, I am glad to see that Hello Kitty is coming back to San Francisco to co-chair the J-Pop Summit in Japantown next weekend that heralds the opening of New People on Post Street. I think the term co-chair is very crucial and subtle, just as she chose to serve as the co-grand marshal of this spring's Cherry Blossom Parade.

I Made This Today

Let's Bring Shiina Ringo to Yoshi's -- NOW!!!

Will that Madonna creature or the Britney menace ever be 10th as cool as Shiina Ringo? No!!! Let's fund her trip to San Francisco now and have her lead the fight to preserve the sterile concrete, air-conditioned malls at Geary and Fillmore. Otherwise they will be filled with Banana Republics, Pottery Barns and condos. Where else can I buy erasures shaped like sushi and three inch high refrigerators?

My Adventures in Japantown de San Jose

Now I can say that I've been to every Japantown in the United States, and I've been two 2/3rds of them during the course of less than 24 hours. This week, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a very offensive and biased article (and they wonder why the paper is on the verge of collapse) about our Japantown, one of my favorite parts of the city. It had statements on the order of "Collectively, however, the malls feel overstuffed and redundant." Overstuffed and redundant is a description that could be applied to Asia in general and Tokyo in particular, or at least to those of such a narrow world view.

Part of what I love about San Francisco's Japantown is that it feels like it is in something of a time warp, a glorious concrete fortress where I feel so safe and able to venture into its somewhat dated but cozy maze of malls, sushi joints, video stores, Sanrio joints, incense emporiums and overpriced stationary stores. I love walking down the stationary escalator at Soko Hardware and discovering great bargains and one of the best selections of drawer pulls and knobs in the city. Forget the Castro or Union Street, this is my idea of Main Street by the Bay.

Having explored the Japantown of my hometown and L.A's I did garner one bit of insight from the Chronicle article: There is a Japantown in San Jose, just north of San Jose State and downtown. San Jose is one of those places that I dismiss as being on the order of tofu, Muzak and wallpaper - possibly necessary but not worth taking time to give notice to. But every time I explore more, I am pleasantly surprised. Today's jaunt (in three digit heat!) proved that adage is well founded. There are no malls here, and the place has the village feel of many of the endless parade of Peninsula suburbs. I especially liked the abundance of ukulele related shops and posters. The stores were dusty with elderly proprietors standing guard suspiciously as I eyed their overpriced goods. I came away with only a DIY golden pavilion, that I look forward to assembling tomorrow morning after coffee, The Times and Bow's walk.
Now, I need to write a letter to the editor for the Chronicle to protest that offensive article that felt like ammunition to build some generic Santana Row style condo/Pottery Barn/IKEA combo at Geary and Fillmore.

Live Crab, Live Yoshida

Had great fun tonight at Yoshi's with Bryce Digdug. We had live crab that fortunately stayed on the plate and did not stoll around, and then we saw the Yoshida Brothers' show. Very appropriately Japanese, they started at precisely 10 p.m., opening with Radiohead's "The National Anthem" from their new album Prism. (As they said about the disc, "Go check it out." I don't think they meant to check it out from the library.) It has some great songs, and they are fortunately shifting away from heavy electronic accompaniment to more purely acoustic sounds.

Dressed in traditional matching robes and clogs, they put on a hell of a show. They also had a hip, resourceful percussionist who was dressed in very contemporary garb. They may be bros but have very different hairstyles Ken'ichi has really great spikey tsunami waves on his head, and little brother Ryōichirō has a gorgeous mane of perfectly coiffed locks with a deep henna rinse. Surely he must travel with a hairdresser, not that I'm implying anything.

They both had some incredible facial expression and grunts as their fingers took their Japanese banjos into hemispheres not of this planet. I must admit that I thought more than once about their nimble fingers exploring more than a stringed instrument.

I'm sure that two boys sittin' and pickin' and grinnin' and plucking their shamisens for 90 minutes is not everyone's idea of a fun Friday night, but it was pretty great in my book. And, having arrived early, I managed to pick up a great mini-kitchen set at Kinokuniya across the street before the dinner/concert.

It's Called a Mikoshi

The past week I have been still sort of on a high from last Sunday's Cherry Blossom Parade and the finale of those burly, scantily clad, grunting Japanese men hoisting that portable shrine. Today I learned from (of all sources, the Bay Area Reporter - gasp) that that shinto shrine is called a mikoshi and is filled with saki.

Since my slide show of the parade wasn't from the greatest vantage point, I offer the above video caught about 50 feet west of me by Warren. However, I think my photos of the mikoshi were among the best shots I got that day, obviously fueled on by some higher power as I pushed forward through the crowd.

I also learned today that the Yoshida Brothers are coming to town in three weeks! Although I am a huge banjo fan, nothing equals that twangy sound of two boys playing the shamisen.

My Day at the Hunky Buddha Pagaent

Last Sunday it was Easter and the Hunky Jesus Pagaent in Mission Dolores Park. This Sunday it was the Hunky Buddhist Pagaent on Post Street in Japantown. Well, it wasn't really, but the last big entry in today's Cherry Blossom Parade came at the end of its two hour duration with a bunch of grunting, chanting Japanese men in loin cloths. This was definitely a lot more fun and sexy and sweet at the same time than those dreadful fetish fairs down on Folsom Street and Dore Alley. And while the men at those festival in their harnesses resemble an array of Easter hams, the Cherry Blossom Parade featured various drummers, shrine hoisters, swordsmen and others who looked yummy in their loin cloths.

Add to all of that two parade grand marshals -- George Takei and Hello Kitty -- and it was a day that made me forgive the heat.

I attended with Bryce Digdug who gave a shout to George that was rewarded with the above wave from his convertible. When I leaned ahead to the right and let Bryce know that I could see a certain eight foot mouthless feline with a pink ribbon below her ear, Bryce nearly knocked me over with excitement.

Some other highlights:

* The kids of the bilingual (Japanese-English) Rosa Parks Academy in a big pirate ship singing "We Are Family". Bryce and I agree that we need to make a career shift and be the music/dance instructors at Rosa Parks and teach those kiddos some of our favorite hits from the 1970s and 1980s. Expect to see them singing "I Want Candy" and "I Eat Cannibals" at next year's parade.
* A seemingly endless contingent of people in anime costumes.
* Several contingents of buff drummers beating their instruments with full force with long sticks.
* Most of our gay or gay-positive local politicians. Mark Leno looked especially tan and happy, and I never realized he is Japanese.

During the parade, a very nice Japanese-American woman named Joanne chatted up Bryce and me and gave some helpful insights about the anime characters. At one point she said, "I want you two to know that I am completely accepting and tolerant of your people." After she left, I turned to Bryce and said, "Well, I certainly hope she wasn't implying that I'm Norwegian too."

Afterwards, we braved the crowds and heat of the "mall" and I got these bits of loveliness at the Kinokuniya Bookstore. My favorite clerk waited on me, and, as usual, she was wearing her gas mask. Expect to see these as part of the sets in an upcoming Junk Thief TV Episode.

In the meantime, here is a video review of the day's parade.

And How Are Your Blossoms?

The Glories of Indirect Light

Junk Thief has never been a fan of direct sunlight and has been known to go into a coma when he is forced to be around unfiltered overhead light for any extended time. While Blanche Dubois favored her little Chinese lanterns, Junk Thief is more fond of those of the Japanese order and has been trying them out in certain parts of the Junkplex. This is the latest addition above JT's ever growing turntable shrine. The question now is whether or not this theme should be extended post-taxes on the long awaited hallway make over project that will include floor renovation (hired out), molding (by JT) and new lighting (hired out/JT). This Tokyo de San Francisco theme would give the Junkplex an aura of Sam Fuller's The House of Bamboo, and we'd just not be able to keep Bryce Digdug away.

By the way, the print on the lower left was a gift given to Junk Thief on his first visit to Vietnam in 1996, a customized block print of the return of the Mandarin scholar, a theme he saw re-enacted the night before at the Thang Long waterpuppet show. Oh, on the theme of worst names for restaurants, Thang Long us up there.

Dance, Mothra, Dance!

Bryce Digdug just called me from Ibiza where he's been for a little getaway before they start shutting things down for autumn. Our little number "Mothra Remixed & Remastered" is now #1 on all the dance floors of Europe and slated for a U.S. release by this weekend. While Bryce informs me that Mothra herself cannot dance, her spirit gets those fine Mediterranean feet moving non-stop with this new hit.

Look for it here in a few days.

We also hope to soon release a third Mothra collaboration in which Bryce and I have a high minded interview about the meaning and moral import of Mothra, perhaps the most enduring feminist insect icon of all time. She destroyed to make the world safer. Boy do we need her now!

JTTV - Season 2, Episode 3 - Mothra Dissected

Blog superstar Bryce Digdug makes his JunkThief TV debut by giving us insights into the classic Japanese monster movie, "Mothra". Vivian Valvoom lends her talents for our new opening credits.

UPDATE: A few people have asked about the aspect ratio on this episode. Yes, it was shot in Cinerama. Yes, we are planning to show it on a big screen. Details are being ironed out, but if all goes right Bryce and I hope to be in Hollywood for the big gala screening during Thanksgiving weekend. We'll be wearing acrylic sweaters just to be on the safe side.

Fearing and Trembling Perverts on the River Kwai

Now and again, a particularly obscure or forgotten bit of cultural history keeps coming back. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard mention of Sessue Hayakawa at least eight or nine times. He first resurfaced during my recent purchase and viewing of The House of Bamboo and then he was heavily referenced last night in a documentary on KQED about Asian leading men when in Hayakawa's early career he starred in films like The Tong Man (1919) and DeMille’s potboiler, The Cheat (1915) where he reputedly predated Valentino as a matinee idol. Personally, I only like DeMille’s sexy melodramas and always crawled under the bed when those spooky Biblical epics came on during the Easter season. Growing up on the Great Plains, I always free associated DeMille, The Wizard of Oz, Jesus, pastel colors, the stench of boiled eggs and tornados as sickly inter-connected omens of spring. I always cheered for the Witch of the West as a woman of color (green), but that’s another story.

Like most people under 98, I only knew of Hayakawa from The Bridge on the River Kwai, a movie I don’t think I’ve seen all the way through in eons. I just remember from my childhood hearing that friggin’, ceaseless whistling coming from the TV set in the den while I tooled away on some crafts project on the other end of my parents’ home.

Hayakawa deserves to be remembered for more than that. There is this little clip available from The Tong Man, and I am anxious to view my now ordered copy of The Cheat.

When I first came up with the concept of JunkThief , I promised that it would be filled with Japanese prison camp neurotica/erotica. I’ve never gotten around to that, but I always thought that The Bridge over River Kwai had those elements subliminally predating the anything but subliminal Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Those themes, however, I think were best updated in Stupeur et tremblements (Fear and Trembling) in which the Bowie/Sakamoto relationship is transferred to a Belgian woman obsessed with her Japanese female supervisor who forces her to clean the washroom, a duty accepts in bowing, salivating submission. The entire power dynamic and transfer of gay male desire onto repressed lesbian Belgian/Japanese women is very Fassbinder-esque. (Honestly, I didn’t make that plot up.) Someday I promise to explore that whole prison camp scenario and dive deep into the childhood dreams of baby JunkThief. The fact that two of William Holden's greatest roles were with former DeMille silent era leading players (Swanson and Hayakawa) fuels the JunkThief imagination of a Sunset Boulevard follow-up starring Hayakawa and Holden in which an exotic, still handsome leading man gives tips to an emerging young talent while urging him to help him return to the screen in an Oscar Wilde penned epic. Alas, that one will only screen in the JunkThief imagination unless we can somehow put it up on JunkThief TV in Junk-mation...

I am curious what the recently discovered Slavoj Zizek of The Perverts Guide to Cinema would make of it? Gosh, I’m glad to know I finally have a guide in all of this.

JunkThief Always Wanted to Be a Shriner

What house is complete without a tea shrine? And what did poor JunkThief do back when he lived in a city without a Japantown, let alone Ichiban Kan that was selling tansu cabinets for less than he usually pays for a pair of shoes?

Most of these pots came from the Hong Kong teapot museum shop and are not even the tip of the iceberg. And as far as varities of teas? He has more varieties of Oolong than most have of pairs of socks. Okay, Warhol had his cookie jars, JunkThief has his teapots..as well as LPs, 78s, shoes, silent movies, Oaxacan pottery, ex beaus...Thank God for offsite. Off to Sugarlump for coffee in the meantime. Tea after dinner sounds good.

UPDATE: Not completely unrelated question: How many times in one day is KCRW going to play clips from the Joni Mitchell tribute album? Especially Bjork's take on "The Boho Dance"? JunkThief does love almost all things Joni, but this is starting to get on his nerves to the point to where he might actually have to resort to doing something radical -- like listen to local San Francisco commercial radio stations. Uh, no, that's not going to happen. How did this city that was once considered cutting edge on the pop music scene end up having generally stellar NPR affiliates but popular music channels that would be considered lame in Moline, Illinois. Aw well, Thank God for the internet and iTunes radio for that matter too.