RIP Satoshi Kon

Satoshi Kon, a real visionary of the anime world has passed away.

I’ve always enjoyed everything that Kon ranging from the TV series Paranoia Agent to films like Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika.

His work was touching, but also thought-provoking. He eschewed the ultra-cute type of characters prevalent in anime, preferring instead to create multi-dimensional characters in fantastical, but very real situations and worlds. His work definitely inspired me as a scriptwriter and playwright, and I’m looking forward to seeing his final film.

In tribute, this is the opening of the TV Series Paranoia Agent.

Wednesday Jukebox Says Imitation is…

…the sincerest form of flattery…getting attention without effort.

At least in Korea.

It should be easy to guess which “controversial” video by two worldwide successful artists was the inspiration for Mamma Mia.

 

Good thing that the song isn’t too bad, though the video helps it…majorly.

Election Day Aftermath

Is it really an aftermath when to some extent it’s not decided.

The ABC News Homepage at the moment says “Deal or Deadlock.”

The House of Representatives is at 70 Labor, 72 Liberal/National, 1 Green, and 4 Independents. Convincing the 4 Independents and the 1 Green (Yay!) to side with either Labor or the Coalition will decide which party will rule, albeit as a minority.

Rational thinking puts Labor as the better suitor, but you can never rule out randomness in Australian politics.

So perhaps we’ll call it Election Day Ceasefire? Election Day Stalemate?

The really big silver lining: The Greens now hold the balance of power in the Senate, so I’d say that whoever does the courting would be wise to swing to the Left.

Australia will likely get Same-Sex Marriage before California.

Hours Away…Election Day

In the coming hours, Australia will either legitimise its first female Prime Minister or give it to a North Shore freak show who knifed his colleague.

Since voting is compulsory in Australia*, I won’t trot out my “voting is a right that many people have died for” spiel, but I would just encourage anyone in Australia to really make a concerted effort to think about what they’re being asked for at the polling booth:

• Should we do something more about climate change?
• In this day and age, should we continue to withhold rights from same sex couples?
• Do you feel that you’re sharing in the prosperity they are always talking about in the news?

* Technically it’s only compulsory to show up at the polling station to have your name crossed off on the electoral rolls, but most people do the right thing and vote.

Have a laugh before and after you vote…

Election Comedy in Australia

Via Daniel Burt, I found this selection of Lego comedy sketches about Election 2010. Nothing beats Australian political comedy.

My Little Political Dilemma

As this election season goes on, I find myself at a bit of a crossroads. Shortly after moving to Australia, I figured I was an Australian Democrat (centrist, although still rather left by American standards).

Then the Liberal Party (centre-right, although centre by American standards) put Malcolm Turnbull in charge. I started out indifferent towards Mal, but despite his Republican (as in turfing the Monarchy, not as in GOP) sensibilities, Scrooge McDuck background, and disinterest in same sex marriage, he actually seemed rather decent and willing to make the Liberal-National coalition more moderate. He also was more charismatic than Rudd.

Through some bizarre twist that oddly mirrored how Rudd fell, Mal got the boot in favour of Tony “Mad Monk” Abbott…by one vote. Poor Mal said that he was going to leave politics, but fortunately stayed. Still, he’s not leading the Coalition at the moment, so the Liberals got struck off my list.

As for Labor, I’ll be honest with you, I did not like Kevin Rudd at all. He seemed too socially conservative and travelled too much as opposed to dealing with domestic concerns. I was happy when Gillard took the reins (although as an American, watching Westminster-style politics in action is very strange…it comes across as almost too secretive and devoid of public input).

Now the AusDems are making a play for disaffected Liberal voters (particularly those who are horrified by the Mad Monk), and by all intents and purposes, I should be quite happy for the party to be gaining strength.

Yet, I now find myself attracted to a party that I used to be horrified by: The Greens.

As left as I am, I just always found the Greens to have their priorities in the wrong place. Call me selfish, but I’m “people over plants.” I care about the environment, but not enough to make it a political ideology.

The Greens must have heard enough people with similar reservations, because they have moderated their message.

Health, infrastructure, and in favour same-sex marriage, I’m sold…for now.

Just keep things sane, Bob. Please.

Running Scared of the Churches...in Australia?

Granted ever since Mark Latham started riding the crazy train, I generally ignore everything he says, but he has come clean on why he did support the ban on same-sex marriage during the Howard era: he was afraid of parish priests.

In one of the most non-churchgoing countries in the Western World?

Still, as the GayNZ.com article posits, what's Julia's excuse? She's an atheist and open about it, so the religious argument doesn't hold much water with her already being PM.

Monday Jukebox is Like A Queen

One last jukebox clip for today. I’ve posted the first person POV version of Like A Queen previously, but I discovered that there was another version which has its own charms. Enjoy!

For a Japanese jazz-pop video, both versions seem to be shot in Sydney, or a part of Japan that is very similar to it.

Recovery Jukebox Catches A Wave

After a day in hospital, and a day and a half of doing the fun logistics of insurance and home repair, I wish it was the early 1980s and I was a surfie listening to neo-Beach Boys pop as performed by Tatsuro Yamashita.

A Little Comedy Interlude

I was raised pretty much religion-free, and I pretty much intend to do so whenever I have a child. There will be some out there who might think this clip is blasphemous, but I think it’s hilarious myself.

Drum n’ bass and taking the piss? Priceless.

Thursday Jukebox Says Go-Go KPop

So there’s another Korean girl group…Wait!

Seriously, there is no need to run for the hills. The group’s name is Secret and their latest Madonna, is actually pretty decent. Apparently, the Go Go revival which Amerie and Beyonce began has finally caught up to Korea. If there’s any auto-tune going on in this song, then it’s pretty well-hidden.

Bonus: New Zealand has kind of a burgeoning soul music scene. Prime example: Fat Freddy’s Drop. This is their rather well-executed video for Boondigga.

My New Electoral Home

Yep, the other half & I have moved on up to the East Side…to Wentworth

I lurve Australian politics.

“Normal” Service Resumes

First, I want to thank all you out there for your patience during this unscheduled hiatus. Over the past few weeks, I’ve moved neighbourhoods (swapping Redfern for Darlinghurst) and now come across a bit of a bad trot health-wise.

Now onto the fun!

You know, I was eager to rip into Penny Wong with regards to her bizarre choice of toeing the party-line with gay marriage, but let’s start out with something uplifting…Antoine Dodson.

The sudden interne celebrity rise of Dodson first made me think that this would be yet another case of inner-city crime turned into hipster fodder, but actually, I’m quite pleased to find that higher profile is helping raise funds for him and his family via the iTunes auto-tuned version. (Buy it!)

Now, Ms. W®ong.

I think she’s done her soul a serious disservice by supporting the party line, but I think it’s also important for those not familiar with Australia to know a few things about the gay marriage debate in Oz.

In Australia, more than in the US, it’s ultimately a debate over the word “marriage.” Australia is one of the least religious countries in the Western world, and the idea of “shacking up” is not as frowned upon. Both gays and straights use the word “partner” to refer to their significant others.

What we Americans call “common law” marriages are called “de facto relationships.” These de facto partnerships effectively are equal to married couples in all the states and territories. For example, unlike the US which would require marriage for an American to stay with their foreign partner, the foreign born partner of an Australian can remain in Australia under the interdependency/de facto visa scheme (which interestingly enough is the same visa that many Australian men used for mail-order brides).

The interesting thing in Australia is that the popularity of de facto partnerships along with the Australian sense of fairness has led to a majority of Australians supporting same-sex marriage in poll after poll. So it really is an argument over a word, and in my opinion the government should either get out of the marriage business or declare civil unions (and de facto partnerships) for all. *

The religious argument that often colours the same sex marriage debate in the US and other countries doesn’t really hold much water in Australia. Case in point: a Family First senatorial candidate in Queensland has gotten a serious public bollocking in the media for homophobic tweets comparing same-sex marriage to child abuse. Queensland has a strong redneck reputation. It’s where Pauline Hanson (she who would gladly have the White Australia policy back and the Apology to the Stolen Generation rescinded) is from. If those comments don’t work in Queensland, they don’t work in Australia full stop. It’s also worth noting that a majority of Queenslanders also support same-sex marriage.

While my partner & I have considerably more legally enforced rights in Australia as a same sex couple than in the US, I am hesitant to paint the Antipodes as LGBT paradise. Why? Well, in New South Wales we have a bizarre law from 2000 which prohibits same-sex couples from adopting, but not LGBT individuals. This restriction may be lifted this month, as the Premier is going to allow a conscience vote on the issue.

The light at the end of the tunnel may very well be in sight.

Monday Jukebox Talks Fashion and Electropop

The comeback is not just lurching, it’s coming so fast I can feel it breathing down my neck.

But it isn’t here yet. (And after what Penny Wong said, my opinion gun is locked and loaded.)

No, today it’s another jukebox. Another Korean jukebox in fact.

I have no problem admitting that I like electropop, but as innovative as it can be…

…its success creates some shoddy imitators.

Se7en, for example has come back with a somewhat disappointing song, and even worse, either he and/or his management has seriously pissed off the costume department.

I am far from a fashionista, but everyone in that video looks like they are dressed in rejects from a Devo video.

And then there’s the new one from [god, I hate typing their daft name] SHINee. Ring Ding Dong wasn’t profoundly ground-shattering, but it wasn’t dross either. This time around they have a song called Lucifer (interesting lyrical theme) and outfits last seen from when The Village People went New Wave or the cinematic clunker The Apple. I think they must’ve pissed off the costume department too.

Shiny indeed.

Sunday Jukebox Says I’m Coming Back

Apologies for doing my due diligence on here, but I’m in the process of moving home (and suburbs), and not able to give my all. Still worry not! There’s heaps of things I’m eager to muse about on this corner of the internet:

• The Australian election: Julia vs. Mad Tony (Blair) Abbott
• How The Australia-US Free-trade agreement leaves some of our (Australian) channels with schedules that look almost exactly like the Z-list has-been programming on barely watched US broadcast channels (think WLNY/Channel 55 in Long Island).
• The weirdness that is Masterchef Australia

And guess who’s also making a comeback (to Korea), BoA, and her song and video for Game has SAW (Stock Aitken Waterman) meets 80s Swing Out Sister written all over it…in Korean. In other words, this is aural heaven to me, the video ain’t too shabby either. Enjoy.

Monday Jukebox Schools A Fool

Alright, I’m 31. I embrace it fully.

I am also in Australia, and embrace that fully as well.

That said, I nearly spat out my drink when someone (admittedly a twentysomething, but a music journo who still should’ve known better) told me he thought the “I wanna rock right now”  in Rock That Body was not sampling.

So kids, get in the time machine and experience one of the best rap songs ever.

Yes, we weren’t afraid of wearing lots of colours in those days.

Friday Jukebox Says What?

What a interesting video that arrived in my inbox today. It’s like the product of a diluted Thriller (Michael Jackson) and Frozen (Madonna).

I don’t know whether I like the song or the choreography, but from a visual standpoint, it’s rather impressive.

I Left It, I Loved It : The Independence Day Post

I'm going to ask you to indulge me a bit.

Astrologically, the USA is considered a Cancerian (no pun intended). So was my father, who was born a few days earlier.

It wasn't until recently that I managed to see a parallel between my relationships with the two.

I'm an Aquarian, and for those who don't follow Astrology, we don't really get along well with Cancers. We think they're drama queens interested in inanity, they think we're cruel sadists out to break their hearts when it hurts the most for the sake of proving our individualism.

I spent the majority of my childhood being somewhat idolised (admittedly due to sexism) in my father's eyes. He was a Vet two times over, and subscribed to the 1930s-era of children being subservient to their parents. In his eyes, I was like The Little Prince. It also helped that it was the 1980s, and there was some degree of innocence left in popular children's culture.

Then came my rebellious years, wherein I horrified my father.

Now, everyone in general is expected to rebel while a teenager, but I saved mine until I went to college. Coming Out was not a rebellion, and to be terribly honest, I did not expect to be, nor was the news treated as such. (It was more of a "that's nice, son.")

My rebellion came when my father realised that the pleasant, well-mannered, slightly independent boy left for college and came back a pleasant, well-mannered Socialist young man.

I was never one of those "down with the tyrants" type of Socialists, but rather a "everyone deserves a fair go." And by "fair go," I do mean a level playing field.

This sort of thinking doesn't go down well in the US, because the US is about maintaining a certain facade, and maintaining that facade is paramount for its own mental health.

"Liberty and equality for all?"

Sure, the US is practicing that.

Never mind that it's been under a century since I, as a Black American have had a vote.

Never mind that my own state thinks that it is wrong to deny me even recognition of my partnership because it is with another man.

Never mind that in order to build that American Dream, it must be built on the backs of underpaid, underprotected workers and a mainstream society gone Cuckoo for Credit Card Capitalism.

I truly believe that the US is a nation that cannot at all afford to take such a hard look at itself, because it would disintegrate.

Yet, it's my literal homeland, and I can't help but have affection for it.

Remember how I said that I horrified my father? It wasn't because I was gay. It wasn't because I spoke my mind. It was because I could point out where the flaws were in the national dream that he, and many others Americans like him, had. I could also point out that it was not one that I wanted.

And that brought a chill to our relationship as father and son. One where he would bemoan my cigarette smoking*, and I his provincialism.

* Interestingly, when I was growing up. My father would castigate anyone who smoked in front of me--including relations. He also nearly burnt our house down whenever I ran the risk of catching him smoking. The image of being a non-smoker was more important than the action.

Nonetheless, when my father passed away in February 2002, I could honestly say that we had reached a honest, lasting civility. One where we could understand that the bond we had as family did not mean that we had to blindly accept the other.

That's how I feel about the US. I care about it, because it is where I grew up and I still have family there, but I cannot bring myself to truly accept that it is the Zion it likes to believe itself to be. The US just can't bring itself to reconcile its dreams and its reality, and I could only see myself turning into someone I was not meant be, the longer I remained.

Australia is certainly far from perfect, but I have to truly applaud it at how Australian society does value each person and how Australians are proud of their ability to call the proverbial 'bullshit" when there is discrimination.

I'm proud that I now live in a country where a majority of the populace straight and gay says that it is wrong to deny same sex couples marriage...no matter what the ruling party says. I'm also proud that I now live in a place where it is truly believable that discrimination will get reversed. I'm proud that the nation is willing to work at improving life across the board, and not still confused by the failure of trickle down economics.

And yet, I'm still proud of Obama. I'm still proud that there is hope for American society to truly learn to embrace its citizens, even if it must be long and arduous, and fraught with residual bigotry at every turn because it does not fit some absurd national myth.

I just don't want to live in that kind of society and I don't want my future child to live in that one either.

So the US & I are civil with each other. I can never be as close to it as I used to be, and that's fine.

At this moment, I'm enjoying a very chilly winter's night in NSW. It's -4C. This is the kind of weather I love. If every 4 July from here on in will be like this, I will be happy.

I'll just make sure to spend Australia Day in the Upper Midwest.

Oh, It’s Canada Day, don’cha know?

Love all you hosers up dere.

It’s a crying shame that I only have gotten a chance to see some of the best Canadian programming (The Border, Being Erica*, Billable Hours, etc.) since going Austral.

* Does anyone watch SOAPnet?

Though it’s a damn shame that Flashpoint isn’t airing regularly down here. (We are fortunately spared the inanity of Red Green, however, which airs constantly in Wisconsin.)

I still would move there (well Toronto or Montreal) in a heartbeat…especially in the middle of the Australian summer.

No Canadian tribute is complete without Celine Dion of course:

et pour le Quebec libre:

An Advertorial Break

Remember hearing about those days when adverts were actually part of the show? As in Lucy & Desi spruiking for cigarettes? Well, the morning chat shows down here in the Antipodes still use that form of advertising. Most of them are mind-numbingly camp (yet still not as annoying as the full half-hour beasts.)

However, here’s a rather smart one using drag star Courtney Act.