November 26, 2009
THANKSGIVING WARNING: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
Even in this time of recession/depression, many of us are likely to indulge in our annual Thanksgiving gluttony. As a smoker all too familiar with the current popularity of graphic warning labels, I figure what’s good for one vice is good for another. But, since this is our traditional holiday feast, the graphics should really be chosen with good taste in mind. Here are some surreal offerings from the European masters.
PREPARING THE FEAST
Vincenzo Campi "Martha's Many Things"
AFTER THE FEAST – as depicted by Guiseppe Arcimboldo (titles by Monde Dane)
The Voracious Vegan
A Very Fowl Fellow
The Rapacious Mariner
The Consummate Carnivore
Have a happy but tempered Thanksgiving.
Bon appetit – Monde Dane
November 21, 2009
OBAMA’S BOW: A JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (R) shakes hands with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Shanghai September 28, 2009. REUTERS/Aly Song (CHINA)
Dane: What did you think of Obama’s visit to Japan last week. Yuji?
Yuji: He was very nice. I like the way he speaks. Easy to understand.
Dane: Did you notice anything special about his behavior?
Yuji: Special? No.
Dane: Didn’t you see him with the emperor?
Yuji: Oh yeah, you mean the way he bowed?
Dane: Yeah, wasn’t it strange?
Yuji: He did overdo it a little.
Dane: Anything else?
Yuji: Yeah, he shook hands while giving a deep 60-degree bow.
Dane: That looked pretty awkward, didn’t it?
Yuji: He looked like he was reaching for a lost sock in the clothes dryer.
Dane: How should he have done it?
Yuji: He should have bowed at about a 30-degree angle.
Dane: And not shake hands at the same time.
Yuji: Oh, we bow and shake hands all the time.
Dane: So, that was OK?
Yuji: No. At 15 or 30 degrees it’s OK, but not more than that.
Dane: So the only problem was he bowed too deeply.
Yuji: Yeah. The deep bow is for ceremonies or serious apologies.
Dane: But he was meeting the emperor!
Yuji: Even our prime minister doesn’t bow that deeply when he greets the emperor.
Dane: How would he greet the emperor with respect.
Yuji: To show special respect he would bow 45-degrees and then shake hands.
Dane: So Obama had it all wrong.
Yuji: No. His form was good.
Dane: Except he should have kept both hands at his side, right?
Yuji: I read somewhere that American businessmen are taught how to bow before coming here.
Dane: That’s right. Even when they come for a short visit they usually get a one-hour orientation on the proper way to bow and exchange name cards.
Yuji: Isn’t there anybody at the White House who could have taught the president the basics?
Dane: There sure is. The Chief of Protocol, a woman named Capricia Marshall who was appointed by Hillary.
Yuji: Aha! Maybe Hillary sabotaged him.
Dane: I never thought of that!
Yuji: Actually, he wasn’t all that bad. Some Japanese are even worse at bowing.
Dane: Maybe so, but not high ranking government officials.
Yuji: Even them. I saw a picture of Foreign Minister Okada bowing to the Chinese foreign minister. He looked like a drunken man falling over.
Dane: The foreign minister? You’re kidding! But in Obama’s case, the faux pas was with your emperor! Weren’t you offended?
Yuji: Not offended, just amused. It was kind of cute, actually.
Dane: Well a lot of Americans are madder than hell about it.
Yuji: Why?
Dane: They say he made America look weak. – our president bowing to the power of the emperor.
Yuji: You’ve got to be ‘re kidding me! The emperor doesn’t have any power.
Dane: Not now maybe, but in George Washington’s day no president would bow to a monarch.
Yuji: George Washington? Forget about it! This is the 21st century.
Dane: In today’s America only an Obama loving liberal would say that!
Advice from Argent
November 14, 2009
MELANIE FIONA – PHENOMENAL
Haven’t been this impressed with a new singer since Susan Boyle – but this time she sings in my preferred genre, Soul.
The proof of her talent is in her stunning acapella performances.
And get a load of the dude who backs her up with his human rhythm section.
Is it just me, or does Melanie really have the Aretha magic?
November 11, 2009
WAR IS DEAD, LONG LIVE WAR
11:11 11/11 1918 ARMISTICE DAY
Honoring those who served
in the War to End All Wars
11:11 11/11 2009 VETERANS DAY
Honoring those who served
in all the wars that followed
“Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
- Bertrand Russell“ 
Older men declare war.
But it is the youth that must fight and die.”
- Herbert Hoover
“The military don’t start wars. Politicians start wars.” – William Westmoreland
“When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.” - Jean-Paul Sartre
War is the rich man’s profit,
the politician’s choice,
the youth’s adventure,
the patriot’s anthem,
the family’s tears,
the veteran’s nightmare.
- Monde Dane
CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE VETERANS DAY CARTOONS FROM CAGLE
RELATED POST:
November 8, 2009
Macbeth of Noto
“T
his castle hath a pleasant seat;
The air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
unto our gentle senses.” - Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Pleasant seat indeed; The quiet village of Nakajima in Nanao, Ishikawa Prefecture is too lush, too green, too gentle to ever be compared with the rugged coast of Scotland.
Click for more photos
There is little in the pastoral scenery to prepare us for the tragedy that unfurls every evening on the stage of the Noto Engeki Do theatre.
Click for more photos
Not far from the town we did come across an imposing relic of a home that may well be possessed by the ghosts of local yore; but nothing so melancholy as to befit the doomed Scottish King.
Walking through the Nakajima’s deserted, neglected streets, we saw that none of the theatre’s glitter fell on the neighboring community.
We left the empty business street, passed a temple and crossed the narrow river over a quaint bridge whose peeling red paint spoke of the hope the theatre’s opening must have promised some 16 years ago.
On the north bank we spotted the graceful figure of a young woman standing in front of a store in the middle of a rice field. The shop was modern but the banners hanging from the entrance proclaimed it to be the Serimoto traditional sweet shop. The smile the girl gave us and our two dogs was so disarming that I didn’t hesitate to cross the street and approach her.
I was glad I did; Miss Serimoto and her equally charming mother told of how they had had to relocate closer to the grand theatre to keep their 5th generation business from going the way of the other dilapidated shops in town.
After a pleasant chat on the local history, a rich cup of coffee, and an even richer box of omiyage, we left the ladies and made our way to the renowned theatre where the quiet rural atmosphere was suddenly replaced by a cacaphony of fashionable theatre-goers.
Here it was, the event that brought us to this lovely peninsula on the far side of Japan’s main island. The theatre was the brainchild of Nakadai Tatsuya, Kurosawa’s favorite villain. He purportedly had the theatre built to help revitalize this neglected but beautiful part of the island. Ironically, because of the improved highways that assure a full house for every performance, the Japanese (with their one-track mindset) zip in and out in their buses and cars, most often without spending one yen in the local shops.
The performance of Macbeth was impressive. Unlike the Japanese production of Fiddler on the Roof we saw in Tokyo, Macbeth loses nothing in translation. Nakadai and his leading lady were convincing as the repentant evil doers. The only thing about the production that bothered me was that, because of his age (76), Nakadai was on mike. This actually worked quite well in his dialogues with the wired Lady Macbeth, but presented an uncomfortable disharmony with the rest of the troop who bellowed in exaggerated Kabuki-like stage voices.
The real scene stealer was the stage itself; equipped with a trap-door along the entire back wall, Macbeth’s entrance and final slaughter are performed au naturel with actual horses and soldiers riding right up to the stage. At first I thought this gimmick was a little Disneyesque, but then I thought about how the bard was such a ham and I decided he would have loved this over-the-top audience pleaser.
Our hopes to finish out the evening at a quaint local food shop were quickly dashed when we walked out of the bright lights of the bustling theatre and into the darkened streets of the deserted town. We too had no choice but to jump straight on the highway and begin our 500 kilometer trip home.
RELATED POSTS
October 27, 2009
DEMONIC DESSERTS
An autumn barbeque can be delicious,
Seared steaks, roasted pig, boiling hot stew,
The fire’s products are tasty, not malicious,
Till you get beyond the standard menu.
Your belly bursting and your head aswoon, Your eyes transfix on the blazing embers,
Standing or sitting
‘neath the Autumn moon,
The carnal heat thrills
your outstretched members.
Closer you stand, poking and prodding,
Teasing the flame into a dancing frenzy,
You succumb, body twisting, head nodding,
Plunging your soul into mad infancy.
Crimson coal and amber flame,
Pierce your eyes, singe your heart,
The feast is gone, the fears remain,
Your demon Mara, a la carte.
Mara, the Buddhist devil, said to exist somewhere deep in one's own soul.
October 26, 2009
OBAMA-SPEAK
Petar Pismestrovic - Kleine Zeitung, Austria - Click to purchase
Barack Obama is a good public speaker. His fans praise him for it and his critics attack him for it. A lot of people question his politics, some question his place of birth, but no one questions his ability to charm an audience with his smooth voice and rhythmic phrasing. The New York Times reports that people who barely understand a word of English buy recordings of his speeches to play as BGM!
So, just what is it about his speech pattern that makes it so listenable? A search of the internet produces thousands of analyses of the content of his speeches, but very little that comment on the way he speaks.
One Christian blogger claims he speaks with a cadence (rhythm) like that used to read passages of the Holy Bible. Another authority says he uses a style that is common among African Americans. Both may be true. I listened to Obama’s Inaugural Speech back-to-back with Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech and I could hear some definite similarities. Many of them are are both black and Biblical, but others are not so easily categorized.
- Repeats the same word or phrase often
- Highlights words by stretching them longer or with higher pitch
- Goes up or down at the end of each phrase
- Changes the speed of phrases – slow>>fast or fast>>slow
- Changes the length of phrases
- Uses parallel structure
- Stops for dramatic effect
This is a very simple and incomplete analysis, but it may be enough for you to get the idea.
All of these techniques give their speech a rhythm, make it musical. But the music is different; King croons lyrically, Obama is more staccato and sometimes sounds almost like he’s rapping.
Martin Luther King, Jr. by Yann Couedor
Why does this mean anything to you, unless you are a linguist? Well, if you want to better understand, speak or simply enjoy spoken English, you can learn a lot from these eloquent speakers.
Sometimes the best way to tell how a celebrity sounds the way he does is to listen to a good impersonator mimic his style. Imitators have to find the speaker’s strongest characteristics and exaggerate them — highlight them just like the artist did in the caricture at the top of this article. Amplifying the speech traits makes them immediately recognizable to the audience. Watch and listen how brilliantly Iman Crosson, as Alphacat, recreates the Obama style.
Now, click here for my standard phrase formatted version of Obama’s announcement after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. It is not nearly as dramatic as some of his other speeches, but it has the distinct advantage of being short – just 861 words.
The best way to learn from this is to take the following steps.
1 – Copy and paste your own copy and print it.
2 – Click here to listen to this speech.
3 – Write a slash (/) every place he pauses or stops.
As you do this you will see how he uses regular and irregular phrasing stops to build a rhythmic pattern and to stress key words and ideas.
© Dane Degenhardt, Monde Dane, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dane Degenhardt and Monde Dane with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
October 24, 2009
AUTUMN ON THE NOTO PENINSULA
The Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan
The Noto Peninsula lies some 500 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, that computes to about $200 in gas and an equal amount in tolls round trip normally, putting it out of our reach for the past 35 years. This year the new discount highway policy reduced the tolls to $50. So we were off to the long forbidden “dark side” of the island.
Evidently, the area’s nickname does not apply in the autumn, at least not during our two-day sun-drenched stay. The scene along Chirihama beach drive rivaled that of Malibu or Daytona Beach.
CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE PHOTOS
A few kilometers inland we stumbled upon the serene grounds of the 13th century Myojoji Temple with its five-story pagoda. I have visited too many shrines and temples to be easily impressed, but this ancient Nichiren retreat was bathed in an unusually pleasing aura of serenity – or was that just Amaterasu’s autumn smile sedating us again. When I later inquired as to how this seemingly precarious structure survived so many earthquakes over the centuries, I was amazed to find that it acts like one of those jiggle heads people put on the car dash; each story moves in a different direction sending the kinetic energy into the center where it dissipates harmlessly.
CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE PHOTOS
Our Alpha Romeo was right at home on Noto’s famously winding roads, which were as clear and dry as the sky overhead. All along the way we encountered bikers giving their machines a chance to perform as they were meant to. (I later found out the great roadways were paved with pork – politically speaking – provided by local politician and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.) But even under these ideal driving conditions, I was beginning to get a little weary when, after 16 hours of nearly constant driving, we finally reached our minshuku at the tip of the peninsula. The payoff was dropping to sleep at the ungodly hour of 8pm – after a solitary onsen bath and a scrumptious seafood dinner – which allowed me the rare pleasure of walking the dogs on the beach at sunrise.
TO BE CONTINUED
RELATED POSTS
Autumn in the Mountains of Gifu
