cheerful cynicism

1/12/2010

Cannonball Read #9: A Separate Peace

Everyone has a moment in history which belongs particularly to him. It is the moment when his emotions achieve their most powerful sway over him, and afterward when you say to this person "the world today" or "life" or "reality" he will assume that you mean this moment, even if it is fifty years past.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles takes place mostly in a summer session at Devon School during WWII. The boys at the boarding school are at the cusp of enlisting or being drafted into the military, but they have one last summer before the reality of war reaches them. Our main character, Gene, is reflecting on this time in his life 15 years before, when a boy names Phineas overwhelmed his life. Phineas is a fascinating boy, naturally athletic and friendly, willing to break rules, easily charming. But our narrator is Gene, so we view Phineas from the outside, knowing him only from how Gene felt about him.

Gene is an introverted character, revealing things to the reader that most people would keep private, like wanting the worst of your best friend, fancying some rivalry. Like showing how a shy personality can be taken in by a strong personality despite skepticism. Like showing how you can care so much for someone without ever telling them. Like honestly trying to figure out how to apologize and how to do right.

More than anything, the book captures the detached feeling of looking back a big moment in your life. It still holds power, but you've had time to look back at it and analyze, to realize what sort of an idiot you were at the time, but also to realize that the magic of that time can never be recaptured. A Separate Peace ached for that school year in the details remembered and forgotten by older Gene and how it would define his future.

1/10/2010

Pop culture around the world: Arashi

This may or may not become a regular thing. Mostly, it's a way to do shoddy research about awesome/cheesy/fun stuff from not America. Enjoy.

I try to keep my ends out for girly crap all over the world when I can. This time, it's Japanese pop sensations Arashi. Put together in 1999 Lou Pearlman-style by Johnny & Associates, this 5 member boys band has managed to stick around and remain popular for over a decade. Their music is blandly pop, exhibiting one of the great mysteries in life: why have a group with multiple singers if they rarely harmonize?

"Sakura Sake" (2005)

The one rapping is Sho. I think I love it.

But adding to their fame all members of the band Ryan Seacrest it and have jobs in every media modality possible. Not only are they singers, but actors in both television (need I mention my love for Asian drama?) and movies, radio and television variety show hosts, etc., etc.

My roommate is a fan and exposed to the band through their show "VS Arashi" where celebrities come and compete against team Arashi in ridiculous Japanese-style games. It is as ridiculous and colorful as you think it is. Showing me an episode featuring fellow male pop star and super pretty Gackt, she translated enough for me to understand what was going on--enough to pick a favorite member of Arashi: Nino!

After doing further YouTube and Wikipedia research, I conclude that my gut reaction of choosing the teasing Nino as a favorite is vindicated. Not only is he adorable, he seems to consistently have the least styled hair, which is a plus if you look at the other guys. Otherwise known as Kazunari Ninomiya, he's best known to American audiences as playing Private Saigo in Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima. He's also starred in several Japanese drams and films with and without his bandmates.

Also, he shows that he has musical competency with his solo song "Niji" (2007) from Arashi's Time album:

Glasses? Rolled-up sleeves? Vest? Loosened tie?!! Win.

So there you have it: you're new favorite boy band, Arashi.

1/06/2010

Dear Indie Rock Bands

Stop making the girls sing so damn high. It's not in their range, and it makes your music sound like an 8th grade choir concert instead of awesome. Honestly, it ruins perfectly good songs. Check it:

"Chimbley Sweep" by the Decemberists (2003)

The incriminating singing happens about 2 minutes into the song. Every time, I cringe at the nasal highness of those notes. Couldn't you find someone else to sing the girl's part? Answer: yes. The song is narrated, so it doesn't matter who sings it, we'll get the message. Next time get someone competent, like the lead singer, to sing it.

The downside of Indie bands? You can't find good videos on YouTube. Please enjoy a "Teen Titans" interpretation.

"No Cars Go" by Arcade Fire (2007)

The singing starts at 1:10 seconds in. I mean, at least the girl's going for the notes, but is really necessary? Answer: no. It's obnoxious.

Film school project!

"Fools Gold" by The Middle East (2009)

This song's got a lot of great things going for it, but from :30-1:30 you have painfully high notes sung by the chick in the background. Did you really need that sung an octave up? Answer: no. But good use of the girl at the end. Those harmonies in her range really sound nice.

Another class project that was honestly my only option. Try not to cut yourself.

1/05/2010

Cannonball Read #8: Darcy's Story

It's official: I'm a Pride and Prejudice slut. I've seen countless adaptations of the story in film and literature (latest travesty: Lifetime's 12 Men of Christmas), but today I admit that I stooped to reading novelized fan fiction. Something about it being $5 and on an end display spoke to me, and I knew I had to read Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer.

Granted, the book isn't as bad as it could have been. As far as having a writer use a dead author's work as a starting off point, it could be worse. Take Scarlett, for example. It's hundreds upon hundreds of pages of some writer I'm too lazy to look up trying to get Scarlett and Rhett back together, never capturing the fully fleshed-out and beautifully written characters of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. Instead, you have bizarre plot choices, a trip to Ireland, and PG-13 love scenes only fit for reading late at night at sleepovers of bookish girls.

Although Darcy's Story has an advantage of being the story of Pride and Prejudice only from Mr. Darcy's perspective, so no bizarro shark jumping moves are made. In fact, it's a fairly tasteful book give it's sole purpose is to answer "OMG, what was Mr. Darcy was THINKING and FEELING and DOING the whole time!!?" more or less. It takes a view that seems to conducive to his character, showing him justifying his sometimes snobby behavior logically. It also fills in what he was up to during the moments in Pride and Prejudice that he was gone. Darcy's sister Georgiana benefits in this version, showing up in some sweet, if rather expository, sibling scenes.

Unfortunately the answer to what he was doing (as shared in this novel) is mostly thinking about Elizabeth Bennet. Certainly, that makes sense, but it's got to the point where the short chapters seemed to list the number of weeks he was at a certain place before Darcy met up with Elizabeth again and played out scenes that closely resemble the original work itself. And while there are additional scenes with Elizabeth that develop the storyline further, it's not enough to make this a novel in and of itself.

Surely it wasn't supposed to be taken as more than a companion to Pride and Prejudice, but it's not spectacular. Darcy's behavior and thoughts in this adaptation didn't surprise me in the least, having drawn similar conclusions about the character on my own. At the end of the day, Pride and Prejudice is best in its original form--full of wit, satire, a lovely and humorous heroine, and the suspense of not knowing how Mr. Darcy would behave next. But I guess I know now that he rather blandly obsessed about Miss Eliza Bennet. What an anticlimax.

1/04/2010

Cannonball Read #7: Catching Fire

Book 2 of the Hunger Games series, Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins picks up a few months after the conclusion of book 1 (Hunger Games). For anyone who hasn't read the first book, a future dystopic nation has 12 impoverished districts that are under the thumb of the wealthy and corrupt Capitol. To remind the districts of their dependence on the Capitol, they hold annual Hunger Games, in which one boy and one girl ages 12-18 are chosen from each district to compete in a death match where there can only be one victor. The Games are required viewing for citizens and are televised to every home. What makes it an even sicker practice is the facade of honor the Capitol puts on the Games, creating instant celebrities out of these teenagers who will struggle to survive in the harsh climate of the Games. Our protagonist is the scrappy 16-year-old Katniss from the coal mining district 12. She's a skilled hunter with a vast knowledge of fauna, but has severe deficits in her ability to work the media in her favor. In other words, she's an interesting character to follow.

The rest of this review is spoilery if you haven't read Hunger Games. Just go read it. You won't regret that decision, I promise. It's young adult literature at its best.

Anyway, book 2 picks up a few months after Katniss and Peeta's shared victory of the annual Hunger Games. They're keeping up their fake romance for the media to keep the government from thinking their move to pull a double suicide at the end of Games was a ploy to defy the government. However, it's too late, as Katniss and Peeta's act has sparked rumblings of rebellion from all the districts.

So we end up following Katniss as she comes to accept her role as a symbol for revolution. I like that we only know as much as she knows about the state of the districts and the government's power, although most readers will probably catch onto what all the clues mean before she does. We also follow her journey in finding out where she stands with her old hunting buddy Gale and the spurned Peeta. Both of them love her, but how does she feel about them? Fortunately, this last issue was dealt with, I felt, realistically and organically. Part of that has to do with the fact that romance isn't the only focus of the book, although it's a delightful thread that gives more weight to the choices Katniss has to make.

And while Catching Fire book might not be as perfectly plotted or surprising as Hunger Games, it's just as engaging. It was exciting to see the characters grow and connect with one another within this very dangerous context. I can't stress enough how much it heartens me to read literature about a teenage girl that's actually good. Katniss seems like a real person and has real (and scary) choices to make, and I can't wait for the next book to see where she ends up.