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November 26, 2024

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Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN

Aug 7, 2002

Vincent Gallo: the one that got away

By Monty Dipietro

Twenty-odd years ago, I moonlighted as a cab driver in Toronto. I still remember how easy it was to glance in the rearview mirror and peg visitors from the American city of Buffalo, N.Y. They were generally polite and well-dressed, but in the affected manner of a child done up in his Sunday best, squirming...

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 4, 2002

Reform by fiat and persuasion

By Jeff Kingston

INSIDE GHQ: The Allied Occupation of Japan and its Legacy, by Eiji Takemae. London: Continuum, 2002, 751 pp., $40 (cloth) The U.S.-led Occupation of Japan ended 50 years ago, but still casts long shadows over the country and remains hotly debated among scholars and pundits. It is indeed fortunate, therefore,...

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 4, 2002

Finding a place in history

By David Cozy

SENTO AT SIXTH AND MAIN: Preserving Landmarks of Japanese American Heritage, by Gail Dubrow with Donna Graves. Seattle: Seattle Arts Commission, 2002, 220 pp., $19.95 (paper) A lumber camp in Selleck, Washington; a sento at 302 Sixth Avenue in downtown Seattle; a bowling alley in Los Angeles's Crenshaw...

CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF

Aug 4, 2002

Shock of the new: modernism as a cultural force

By Donald Richie

TOPOGRAPHIES OF JAPANESE MODERNISM. By Seiji M. Lippit. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, 301 pp., $22.50 (paper) Among the many results of the 19th-century "opening" of Japan to the West was a truly massive internalization of foreign culture, one which is now so advanced that concepts such...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM

Aug 3, 2002

Solstice weekend under the fog; Camping with the aliens

By Jeff Ogrisseg

I knew it was going to be an interesting weekend the moment my press armband arrived in the mail marked No. 13, though I'm not superstitious enough to turn my back on an event like the Solstice Music Festival.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 31, 2002

Charanga Habanera

By Michael Pronko

It says alot that Charanga Habanera were voted most popular band in Cuba in 1999; there, music is more important than even politics. The group's salsa is not the cheek-to-cheek, swing-around kind familiar to many dancers and listeners, but a rougher, more frenetic style called timba.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 31, 2002

Eddie Palmieri: "La Perfect II"

By Michael Pronko

Once upon a time, in a dance hall called the Palladium, in a city called New York, jazz bands vied with each other in all-night contests to see who could play the hottest, fastest and wildest dance music possible. Among those bands, Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta was one of the most popular. But, with...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jul 31, 2002

Joan Miro: Reflections on the renewal of Spain

By C.B. Liddell

No artist's life and work -- not even Picasso's -- better represents the modern history of Spain than that of Joan Miro (1893-1983), whose early work from 1918 to 1945 is now on display at the Setagaya Art Museum.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art

Jul 31, 2002

Modern Paintings of Mongolia: taking great steppes

By Payal Kapadia

Dividing his massive empire between his sons, Genghis Khan's grand legacy to the eldest was all the land from the Aral Sea westward "as far as the hooves of Mongol horses have reached."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Jul 31, 2002

By Philip Brasor

Arto Lindsay's age (49) and bespectacled appearance make him an unlikely sex god, but few musicians fuse carnality and spirituality with such seamless grace. "All my visions crowd down to one bead of sweat," he sings on his new album, "Invoke." Lindsay's voice is soft, knowing, sensuous; attributes that...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE

Jul 31, 2002

Rock 'n' roll is here to stay

By Steve McClure

The silly season -- when the midsummer heat engenders a sort of benign lunacy -- is well and truly upon us. And you can't get much sillier, in the nicest sense of the word, than The Yellow Dogs and The Bunnies, two resolutely retro bands who have recently issued albums whose primitive musicality is more...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN

Jul 31, 2002

Man vs. nature: the frontline

By Monty Dipietro

Blockbuster solo shows now running at the Bunkamura (Rene Magritte) and the Setagaya Art Museum (Joan Miro) are already ensuring this is one of Tokyo's best summers in years for aficionados of 20th-century art. Now, thanks to a bit of bold curating by Taro Amano, the Yokohama Museum of Art is host to...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.

Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat

By Greg Dvorak

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