Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino's newest movie, Inglourious Basterds, has had the biggest opening of his career to date.
This is not surprising, as Basterds is also the best movie of his career to date.

Let me start out by saying that Basterds is NOT a revenge movie (we've already seen one of those, thankyouverymuch, it's called Kill Bill) although the plot is often misconstrued as such. Instead, this movie was made to mock American Bloodlust.

In a nutshell, the movie is about a special troop of Jewish-American soldiers (called the Inglourious Basterds and led by Brad Pitt) who are sent to harass and harangue the Nazis during WWII. The movie culminates with a plot to take out all of the Nazi head-hanchos (Hitler included) during the premiere of a Nazi propaganda movie.

-- spoiler alert!!! --
The first scene of the movie portrays Nazi brutality as they gun down a Jewish family ... and the next hour shows Americans shooting, scalping, stabbing and beating-to-death-with-a-baseball-bat, Nazis. Being that this is a Tarantino movie, all of the above is shown in great (and bloody) detail.
Throughout all of this, a good 90% of the people around me in the theater were cheering, yee-hawing, clapping, and shouting praises at the Basterds' bloody works.

Later on when the higher-ups of the Third Reich are watching the Nazi propaganda movie, the entire Nazi theater is alive with cheering, yee-hawing, clapping, and praises for the hero: who is shown shooting and killing wave after wave of American soldiers.

Sound familiar? I'd just been hearing the *SAME THING* in my East-Tennessee movie theater for the entire previous hour!
There is absolutely no difference between what the Nazis did and what the Basterds are doing on screen, and Tarantino has America yelling for more.

What he has done with Basterds is cleverly point out that - in the movie - we are both the same. In Basterds, American brutality and Nazi brutality are next to indistinguishable
Historically, Nazis would carve the Star of David into the chests of Rabbis, however this is not shown or mentioned in the movie. Instead, in Inglourious Basterds Pitt and his gang carve swastikas into the foreheads of Nazis in able to "identify them after they remove their uniforms". Also, aside from the first scene of the movie and then later on in the propaganda film, there really is very little Nazi violence portrayed onscreen. The vast majority of the blood and gore is the Americans' doing.

Tarantino uses a movie-within-a-movie to make a poignant commentary on the ideas of American superiority and bloodlust; and in doing so, makes Inglourious Basterds truly glorious indeed.

Jas goes to Bath Junkie

08/19/2009

While I was in Japan I taught a few self-introduction lessons and got LOTS of questions about my "hometown" of Knoxville. Both of the above basically amounted to me talking all about Knoxville and extolling it's many virtues.
This in turn made me realize that Knoxville really is a cooler city than I ever gave it credit for when I was living here before!

For example - Knoxville has a Bath Junkie.

For those of you who haven't been; it's a store which carries an fantastic collection of bath products, lotions and etc. However, unlike the million other bath stores around town, at Bath Junkie you mix your own scents and choose your own color - thus enabling you to get *exactly* what you want (or to mess up and make something hideously-smelly)... and it is LOTS of fun.

There's a extensive selection of scents to choose from for your mixing enjoyment.
Among them: jasmine, almond, cinnamon, champagne, asian rain, candy cane, and man magnet.

Who wouldn't want to wash their hair with man-magnet shampoo?

http://www.bathjunkie.com/locations/tn/knoxville/#

Jas goes to Texas

08/10/2009

A few days after we got back to Tennessee, we turned right around and went to Austin, Texas to visit my mom.
Texas is not quite like the rest of the United States ... and Austin is not quite like the rest of Texas!

Which is why I love Austin.
(No offense to the rest of TX)

For those of you who haven't been, here are a few of my favorites:

Cupcakes:
www.heycupcake.com
(2 locations in Austin)

Mexican food:
www.guerostacobar.com
(any Mexican food in TX is good food, really, but Guero's is one of the best!)

Any food:
www.centralmarket.com
(you can find anything and everything here, and oh how I wish there was one in Knoxville!)

Bats:
www.icebats.com
(Austin's very own hockey team; they're pretty good too)
http://www.austincityguide.com/content/congress-bridge-bats-austin.asp
(real bats!)

Summertime entertainment:
www.zilker.org
(free theater in the park!)

Suffice it to say that Austin is a fun town and an ideal place to vacation anytime of the year :)

Japan part last

o7/31/2009

In our last 2 weeks in Japan we:
1. Conquered Fuji (kind of)
2. Went to our first Japanese baseball game (It was fun for a little while but really -- who can stand watching an entire game of baseball? Not I! )
3. Saw the BEST art exhibit EVER (by Japanese artist Seiji Fujishiro who works completely by cutting and pasting various types/textures of paper)
4. Went inside the largest wooden structure in the world (Todaiji Temple in Nara City)
5. Said lots of goodbyes ...

But Fuji probably makes the most interesting story.

It is said that only a fool never climbs Fuji ... or climbs it twice.
We decided to start climbing in the dead of night so that we could reach the peak in time to watch the sunrise. Japan is, after all, the Land of the Rising Sun. Fuji has 10 stations - the first being the base and the 10th being the top - and most people (ourselves included) start from the 5th station. There is in fact a bus that will take you straight to the 5th station, and so began our trek. We started out at about 9PM and had a really pleasant hike and made good time all the way up to the 8th station. At the 8th station, however, we realized several things: it was cold and getting colder, it was wet and getting wetter, everyone around us had waterproof pants and jackets, and we were wet and cold and had waterproof jackets but regular pants. Not to be daunted by such things we pressed on anyway, only to realize that we were indeed ill-prepared.

By the time we left the 8th station (about 1:30 AM) it was so cloudy and wet that Ian's glasses were completely fogged up. It was still pitch dark outside so I was directing him where to walk as we made our way up. In most places it was so steep that we had to hold on to a guard-rope... unfortunately this guard rope was wet, which in turn soaked through my gloves, which in turn froze my hands and was definitely uncomfortable. We both had on gore-tex shoes and heavy smart-wool socks, but our feet were frigid nonetheless. We realized that freezing and blind is no way to climb a 13,000 foot mountain (not safely anyway) and so at the 1/2 way point to the 9th station we had to head back down.

On the way down we were hit with strong winds, then rain, then torrential rain, and finally, hail. It was really not ideal!
Luckily we made it all the way down in one piece and our Nikon D300 camera was none-the-worse for having been rained and hailed upon (we discovered that our waterproof bags were not actually waterproof). As it turns out, none of the people who actually made it to the peak that day saw the sunrise either because it was too cloudy!

So in the end, we really didn't miss that much by not going to the peak, we had a fabulous time (rain and hail aside!) and we're already looking forward to Fuji Climb part 2: the Revenge!

Japan part 8

It's now our last month in Japan (in fact we'll be back in the states in exactly 3 weeks and 3 days ... Taco Bell here we come!); but we have been keeping busy and our last few days are filling up fast.

This past Saturday we went to our on-again-off-again pottery class and I had my weekly taiko practice. My last taiko will be on July 25th, and I'm definitely sad to be leaving! I've already done a Google search for taiko dojos in Tennessee and it seems like there are exactly zero in the eastern US, so it looks like this might be the end of my taiko days (for now anyway). However, my group is having a going away party for me and Ian a few days before we leave, and that will be fun :)

Yesterday (Sunday) one of the English classes that Ian tutors took the two of us out to dinner in Kobe. We went to a "Viking-Style" restaurant ("Viking-style" = Buffet .... I have no idea where they got the name from) overlooking the Kobe bay. It was really cool; Ian and I had never been to the Kobe waterfront before and now we want to go back at least one more time before we leave!

This week is my last week of school. On Wednesday all the JETs who are leaving Nara (myself included) will be going to Nara city to have a farewell ceremony and meet the Governor of Nara prefecture. We will get our picture taken together and get some sort of "Nara ambassador" certificate - which is cool - but we will also have to wear suits (in 85 degree weather with 85% humidity) and make a speech in Japanese - not so cool.... Then this Friday is my last day of school ever, so I have to make a speech to my teachers (in Japanese) and a speech to the entire school during the closing ceremony (in Japanese).

You may think that after a year of living in Japan we would both speak Japanese really well, but this is not the case! We both have a pretty good listening comprehension level, but our speaking skills are next to nil. However, I have written a basic speech in Japanese that I can use for all three occasions with a few little word changes here and there. My governors speech is about how I enjoyed Japan and will miss Japan; my teachers speech is about how I enjoyed Takatori and will miss teaching, and my closing ceremony speech is about how I enjoyed teaching and will miss the students. ( Clever, I know. )

Next week we are going to make our last day-trip to Kyoto (we've been there handful of times over the past year but it doesn't get old!) and we are also going to climb Mt. Fuji. As luck would have it, one of Ian's students is taking a short family vacation to Fuji next week and said that we could ride along with them! We weren't quite sure how to get to Fuji & back (and we heard it can be pretty pricey) so it's super nice and convenient that they are going to drive us. As a matter of fact, almost everyone here has been INCREDIBLY nice to us, so before we leave we are also going to go on a big shopping trip for some little gifts for all the people who've helped us along the way during our stay here.

Anyway - the week after that we have another going away party hosted by another one of Ian's classes, and we are also going to see a Hanshin Tigers baseball game. Hanshin is the Osaka/Kobe team, and the pride of the Kinki/Kansai area of Japan! We've heard that the games are quite an experience ... not so much because of the team, but because of their die-hard fans. Sometime in there we also want to make one last day trip up to Osaka and Nara cities.

Then on August 5th we will be back in the states!

Japan part 7

05/19/2008

Since last november I have been taking drum lessons at a local community center. These are not American drums, but rather Japanese drums called "taiko" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko).
They have religious origins, and temples will often call in a taiko team to play for a religious ceremony or festival. My taiko group performed on April 3rd at a temple near Nara city, for a festival celebrating Buddah. Here is a video for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEYMp94wZUQ

It was definitely great fun, and even though I wont have any more performances before we leave, I am still going to my weekly classes :)

April is also the start of the new Japanese-school-year. This means there is a lot of shuffling around of teachers. The way the school system works here is that each teacher belongs to the system as a whole, and the head-hanchos can move teachers around as they see fit. A teacher can put in a request, or refuse to move, but the board of education does not have to honor their wishes. Teachers can be moved after one year, or 14 years... they never know for sure when it will happen! They're given about 3 days notice, and during those 3 days all the teachers in Nara-ken who are moving must pack up all their stuff and unpack again at their new school. Thus the begining to middle of April was full of welcoming ceremonies and goodbye parties of various kinds.

Towards the end of April real classes at school finally start ... but then during the first week of May there is a string of National Holidays known as "Golden Week" - which basically amounts to a 5 day weekend!

All of Japan gets Golden Week off so traveling is typically busy and expensive during this time ... so Ian and I decided not to go anywhere and just relaxed at home. It was very nice :)

In other news - right now Japan is in the middle of a swine-flu scare. A group of students from Osaka went to Canada for Golden week and one of them returned with swine flu. That student was on the volley ball team at her high school, and there was a volley-ball match between other Osaka & Kobe highschools .... and now there are over 100 cases of swine flu in Osaka / Kobe (hand-washing using soap is not common amongst the students!) and every single school in Osaka is closed for the week. On top of that, they are screening every single passenger on-board any planes coming from the states or Mexico, and if just one passenger has a fever, that passenger and every passenger around him will be quarantined in Tokyo for a week! I personally think they are over-reacting, by, well, A LOT; but who knows. At least if swine flu comes to Nara I might get a week vacation!

Japan part 6

03/02/2009

Its the first week of March here - and that means several things in Japan: entrance exams for junior high school students, the end of the year for senior high school students, graduation, and the Naked Man festival! I'll start with the entrance exams ...

In the states the high school you go to is determined by where you live and everyone automatically gets in.

Here, however, all the junior high school students have to apply to various high schools and then take a rigorous exam to get accepted. Lots of these students go to extra "cram school" for 3 - 5 hrs every day after their regular school just to prepare for this test! In fact, its a lot like applying for college in the US! The security surrounding these exams is intense as well, with every teacher doing everything they can to make sure not a single snippet of information leaves the school before the exams start.

After the testing is finally over and everything has been graded, all the students who took the test (and their anxious parents) are invited back to the school to see the unveiling of the results. They all stand around in our courtyard and watch as some teachers on the 3rd floor of the building lower giant wooden boards covered in numbers. The numbers are the student's testing ID numbers ... if their number is displayed on the board, they got in! If their number is not there, they failed. There was a lot of joyful screaming and also a lot of crying that day...

Just in case a school doesn't get enough students during the first testing period (we didn't), two more are scheduled in mid & late march.

March 1st was graduation! Its basically what you would expect for any other graduation: speeches from the principal / vice principal / a student, lots of pictures, lots of crying, and the handing out of diplomas. The diploma-giving is one area where this is a big difference, though. Whereas in the states (where we celebrate individuality) the diplomas are handed out to the students one-by-one; here one representative from each home room (there are 6 total) comes to the stage and accepts one diploma with everyones' names on behalf of the entire home-room. I found that to be slightly odd, but sensical in a culture that emphasizes groups and teams.

In another cultural note - some of the JETs here recently participated in a very interesting festival called "Hadaka Matsuri"or in English: The Naked Man Festival.

As you may have guessed by the name, this is a festival involving (nearly) naked men. It takes place at the end of February, and basically what happens is at midnight a bunch of men wearing only socks and fundoshi (otherwise known as sumo-wrestler diapers) run together through a city, around a sacred pond, and into a temple where they try to grab a lucky stick. The man who grabs the stick will have good luck all year.

It's very hard to actually get the stick, though, because: 1. literally thousands of other men are also trying to grab it, 2. there is a lot of pushing and shoving 3. the Japanese mafia (the yakuza) sometimes make an appearance and punch people in the face (I was told that was indeed the case this time!).

All-in-all, this is a uniquely Japanese (and slightly dangerous) experience. Ian and I decided not to go and I think it was probably for the best. 6 of the other JETs here ran in the festival, and 2 fell down the stairs (by "fell" I mean were pushed), and another one got his head stepped on and developed an unsightly rash on his leg from rubbing against so many fundoshi.

Here is a link if you want to read more about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadaka_Matsuri