| Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US
PETER Carey and the Who's Pete Townshend make curious fellow travellers. Keen to fathom the siren call of Japanese popular culture to their respective teenage sons, they take different routes to the answer. Carey's ill-planned journey to unmask the real Japan was prematurely doomed to confirm, as his travel memoir avers, that he was wrong about Japan. He'd have been better advised to borrow Townshend's copy of Japanamerica, which the guitarist praises on the book jacket. Japanamerica is a stimulating guide to how Japanese pop culture has invaded the US. As a Japanese-American who divides his time between Tokyo and New York, author Roland Kelts is well positioned to explore the roots and ramifications of a steadfast and, to many, mystifying trend. Although artistic interchange between Japan and the West is centuries old, Kelts sees America's recent embrace of manga (comics), anime (animation) and video games as signifying and strengthening deeper connections between the two nations.
Panel at OU discusses new trend of casual voyeuristic violence
There's a new mischievous teenage pastime coming to town, and this time the stakes are higher than sneaking into Dad's cabinet to find that R-rated movie you weren't supposed to watch. Look out, America: Here comes happy-slapping. Three panelists discussed happy-slapping, the London teenage phenomenon that is also the subject of an upcoming Ohio University School of Theater production, during the school's regular brownbag lunch meeting Friday. "American gangs have been beating people randomly as a part of that culture for a long time," Thomas Vander Ven, criminology director and sociologist at OU, said of America's violent tendencies. "Filming the violence is new, but the behavior is not." At the brownbag meeting, participants explained that happy-slapping is a random violent act that has becoming popular among London youth and has begun to spread to the United States and other places via online forums such as YouTube.
Exporting pop culture
Richard Poplak lives for pop culture. As a teen who grew up in South America, his experiences with The Cosby Show and censorship, with Mad Max and military training have become the seeds of his book, Ja, No, Man!, a portrait of Apartheid. The book launch was last week. Not content to bask in the glory, Poplak, is already working on his second: Omar Simpson says D'oh!, which examines North American pop culture in the Middle East. I.D. chatted with Poplak about Duff soda, radicalized Muslim youth and the virtues of apathy. Q Tell me about your new book. A What sort of nudged me is a piece I came across online that said a satellite television station in Egypt was doing an Arabized version of The Simpsons. I thought that was so strange, it was such a North American phenomenon, it's such a sophisticated piece of satire.
'Hero' went from techie to actor Oka's role is audience favorite
"Heroes" actor Masi Oka's talents are featured in the latest "Star Wars" movies, but you have to know where to look. Oka, now starring in this season's breakout hit TV show, didn't play a fighter pilot, second-tier Jedi or even an alien buried in makeup or latex. "The (scene) I really like is when Obi Wan and Jango Fett are chasing through the asteroid field in 'Episode II,' " Oka says. "They came to me and said, 'We need to destroy this huge asteroid into millions of pieces and don't have the software to do it. Can you help us?' I said, 'Yeah.' " Most "Heroes" fans know Oka as Hiro, the enthusiastic computer programmer who discovers teleportation and time-traveling skills that help him fight the forces of evil on the NBC drama -- which returns tonight with new episodes. His real story is almost equally fantastic.
VH1 comedian brings quality humor on tour
Christian Finnegan, the recognizable face of sarcastic comedy from VH1's above mentioned all-things-pop-culture show, visits Georgia Hall tonight as part of his "Two for Flinching" tour, courtesy of the University Union.
"Our mission is to bring entertainment acts to the University that appeal to the general student body and that students wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity of seeing on campus," said Union Entertainment Coordinator Matt Slotten. "We hope to appeal to the broadest range of students possible and to bring the highest quality shows to campus as we can."
Quality shouldn't be an issue, as Finnegan's credits and popularity are on a steady rise. Along with his "Best Week Ever" appearances, he also has his own "Comedy Central Presents" stand-up special and is the actor behind "Chad" of Chappelle's Show fame.
Art hits Bottoms at gallery opening
Yeah, that's right. West Oakland at least the strip that was lit up not far from Seventh Street. Some fine-looking folks were out for the official opening of Cornelia Bell's Black Bottom Gallery. The 1018 Pine St. gallery has been open for a while. But Friday was the real deal, the christening of the Victorian-turned-art house planted in the former home of neighborhood matriarch Cornelia Bell. Marcel Diallo and a band of fellow entrepreneurs transformed the old Victorian into a showplace for local artists and an anchor for the Bottoms, as the neighborhood cornered by the West Oakland BART, the frontage road to Interstate 880, Mandela Parkway and 16th Street is locally known. The official name is Prescott. Now, if anyone showed up before 9:30 p.m., they would have been too early.
Promoting polycultural identities across the world
Hoda Mohajerani, 34, describes herself as an idealist working quietly to resist the status quo. Refusing to participate in the current "accelerated downfall" of humanity, this graduate of the London University School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) founded Hoopoe Productions in 2005 to promote the work of emerging artists with polycultural identities to collaborate with each other to counter mainstream popular culture. Hoda was born in Iran and came to England when she was six. When she visited Iran at age 20, Hoda was introduced to the philosophy of Suhrawardi, the 12th century founder of the Iranian School of Illumination who was executed at the age of 34 for his intellectually provocative ideas. Hoda lives in Vienna with her Austrian husband now. She was the Sufi consultant to the 1999 film, 'Hideous Kinky', starring Kate Winslet.
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