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- Recession Roundelays
As part of an ongoing effort to avoid all China and/or Olympic news stories, today I read an article on the state of the British economy. It’s mostly conjecture and graph interpretation, but I was touched by the following passage:
Denmark has the dubious distinction of being the first developed country to move into recession and the latest figures from Germany suggest that the economy may have declined in the second quarter. It is possible that the eurozone economy as a whole will have contracted during the quarter.
Having just been in the States, where all anyone is talking about is job cuts and gas prices, I think it’s clear that a large chunk of the world is heading for hard times. The music there has already started to reflect this, so I thought why not assemble a few recent recession-inspired songs in the hopes that they might soothe us or at least distract us. I’ll try to add more as new ones pop up. It’d be cool to get some from elsewhere. Share em if you got em…
Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West - Put on
This one is more about the video than the content of the song, but the video is strong and Jeezy’s new album is even called The Recession so….Big Boi feat. Mary J Blidge - Something’s gotta give
Two of my favorite artists speaking on the problems of the material world. Good beat, Obama shout out and everything. Love this song.Janelle Monáe - Mr. President
DOWNLOAD
No video for this one yet, but this is actually my favorite song of the three. I can not say enough about Ms. Janelle Monáe. I’m gonna make a tribute post to her one of these days. She is a true original, and I strongly urge you to check her shit out. She’s released a couple of EPs that are floating around cyberspace, but she signed to Bad Boy a little while ago, so hopefully she’ll take off properly soon. Her new album METROPOLIS: THE CHASE SUITE (SPECIAL EDITION) is dropping on August 12, according to her website….Popularity: 3% [?]
- Day 2
Well, I had my first day of work today, and it’s clear that my time here is going to be hectic. I don’t think the dream of doing World Cup-style live blogging in going to work. Probably for the best. I’m still processing this place, so better not burden this blog with all sorts of banal observations…
And with that, I’d like to shift the focus of the theme of today’s blog - Brendan’s banal observations on Middle Eastern life!
1. When placed in next to each other, Arabic lettering invariably humiliates English
This being my first time surrounded by Arabic typography, I must say it’s really breathtaking. Even generic messages like this seem somehow layered. By contrast English looks up tight and utilitarian. The calligraphic tradition is still alive and well here, and I think you can see that even in the fonts. Of course English fonts are also somehow based on handwriting, but the focus seems to be much more on precision than on emotion. When English fonts do try for feeling a lot of time it ends up over ornamental and corny or just straight up horrible like comic sans or whatever.
2. If I could I would dress like an Arab
It’s a pity you can’t wear the attire of another culture without looking like a clown. Because if I could I would probably trash my entire wardrobe tomorrow and rock a dishdasha everyday. It’s stylish, convenient, weather protective, economical, comfortable. The only problem is that they tend to be white and I’m a messy eater. Other than that, they get a Dubai-style 7 star rating.
3. Dubai is hotbed of Muslim mildism
With great trepidation, I’m going to get serious for a second. For me as a card-carrying American, visiting the Persian Gulf is an almost constant confrontation with the hostility and stinginess of our perception of Arabic culture. Everywhere words, images, sounds that are considered notorious in in the US pop up, but in benign, family-friendly forms. (I told you these would be banal observations). It’s not that I’m surprised to find that, for example, Iran isn’t considered a menace here; it’s more the reminder of how almost all symbols of Arab life have been stripped of a third dimension (maybe even a second) in “the American mind”. It’s as if there simply isn’t enough mental space to allow for the fact that Iran may be pursuing nukes while simultaneously harboring a love for cake and ice cream. Or that Osama is indeed the name of Public Enemy #1, but also the name of thousands of little boys who are mostly interested in football and PSPs. Particularly as we head into the general election where Obama’s Muslim middle name will be used to pollute his image and stir some vague fear in the hearts of voters, I think it’s a tragedy that the American view of the Arab world is dictated by our politicians.
Popularity: 4% [?]
- What I learned walking around Tokyo
Brendan: That’s crazy right?
Jeroen: Not reallyObservation 1: Techniques pioneered at airports - currently the most fashionable testing ground for new forms social division and behavior control - are popping up in the real world.
Japan used to be a haven for smokers. Cheap prices, very little social stigma (as long as you’re a man), ample street-side vending machines for the kids. But something has changed. Outside the major train stations in Tokyo, smokers are now segregated into special smoking districts. To make matters worse, they are surrounded by elaborate diagrams that deliver guilt trips like, “Where does the smoke go? Only the person producing it is unconcerned,” “You tossed your cigarette out the window. You looked like you were fleeing the scene of a crime,” and (my favorite) “A lit cigarette is carried at the height of a child’s face.”
In the most dramatic cases, though, smokers aren’t even allowed fresh air. They’re crammed into little, frosted glass death chambers, as in this one I found outside the Roppongi Hills center.I once heard a passionate, defiant smoker talk about how the smoking sections of airports were actually good, because they offered the chance for people with little else in common to get to know each other, and bond through a shared hobby/addiction. Maybe this is true, and for the sake of my smoking friends I hope so, because they are being rounded up, and sooner or later may need to defend themselves.
Observation 2: The future will be cute and comfy.
When I left Beijing, the Motorola Razr was reigning mobile phone champion. It was an unavoidable presence in restaurants and clubs, and a pink version had just been released, apparently in the hope of attracting female buyers who were turned off by the cold, Alien aesthetic of the black and silver versions. My friend even had his stolen by a girl he hooked up with. Everybody knows that Japan leads the world in personal technology, so when I got to Tokyo, I expected to see the next Razr. And maybe I have, but it’s different than I guessed.
Instead of continuing the tradition of metallic angularity that signifies ‘modern’ in many places, the phones here are more and more soft and colorful. They’re usually made of plastic and, compared to the enormous mini-computers that many of China’s businessmen carry, look a lot like toys. 5 years ago when I lived here I had a too slim silver phone that I thought was very stylish and was hard to use. Now it seems like silver has been removed from the pallet and the phones are thicker. A friend told me that she thinks Japan hit the ceiling in terms of outward displays of technological advancement and the designers are now pursuing a new form of progress - less flashy, more comfortable and intimate.
Observation 3: Contrary to its image, politics in Japan is not only for conservative old men.
As this cinder block wall attests, women and even animals are welcome.
(Sorry)Popularity: 24% [?]
- HI from Tokyo
まいど!
I’m in Tokyo now, visiting old friends, preparing a Japanese issue of UNIT, and (occasionally) binge drinking.Today I was very happily reunited with my friends Lok & Jeroen, two of funniest and most talented people… If I were to compile a compilation of the best people called, “Now that’s what I call people!” both of these gentlemen would be prominently included, nuff said.
A couple of years ago, we made a 60-meter long collage of the history of Europe. It was part of an exhibition called “The Image of Europe” that Holland and the EU commissioned Rem Koolhaas and his office AMO to create. It eventually was shown in Brussels, Munich, and Vienna. Our friend Iwan Baan has photos of it on his website, check it out…
More soon.
Popularity: 3% [?]
