Monday, February 23, 2009

The Spirit of EDSA in a bottle.


Seeing the photo exhibit of Edsa 1 at Trinoma Level 4, Quezon City was enlightening the street was full of "spirited" people crying out load Cory! Cory! kami! -of course it was just my imagination, I was still sucking my thumb during that time- ang ganda ng mga photo's and I met the "people power photographer" -Sonny Camarillo- Go and check the pictures and you will be amazed of how fashionable and woodstock like the 80's were.

On the 25th of this month, the edsa 1 generals will be there too so lets bring the spirit from edsa to trinoma. Maiint na kasi outside eh and besides wala naman tayong i-paglalaban. We all deserve our nation's existing "democracy" because we are all too critical about change and I think the real change must come from ourselves and not of our government. "The real essence of freedom is death." Death of pride, death of propaganda, death of jealousy and most of all death of greed.

Sana maaala natin ang tunay na dahilan kung bakit tayo nakalaya sa dictatorya. Hindi dahil sa mga personalidad o general na pumapapil sa pangalan ng democrasya o kalayaan. We filipino's are free because we prayed and we let God do his magic trick and I think if without the help of Mama Mary, Edsa 1 will never be remembered.

Sana we will be proud to be pinoy and let us not be fooled by another people power or civil disobedience for God has a great plan, let us pray that the spirit of karma do its offcial visit at Malacanyang whom ever is the President. No over night success can be achieve if all of us will not let go of the struggle for fake control and vague power.

Yellow Power for my great hero Ninoy Aquino. :-)

Friday, February 20, 2009

The worst Film Director on planet is a cross-dresser?

After seeing the film Ed Wood by Tim Burton, I have realize how ignorant yet proud I am of my film background. -False Humility- Anyway, The film is about the failed dream of Ed Wood in Hollywood, during the time were in motion pictures was considered by most Americans as their highest form of art or self-acclaim. His passion for filmmaking was tantamount to mount everest, yet his skill was like a man-made chocolate hill. His imagination is extra-ordinary yet lacks the basics of story-telling and direction, though he was able to make a few cult films. 

Not "gay" but "cross-dresser" because when he was young his mother dresses him in women clothes, so subconsciously it became his comfort hide-away. -So don't judge the book by its cover or "Don't judge my brother because he is not a book" -Melanie Marquez haha... 

The darkness of the film is integrated through its bold and realistic characters that not only portray as support cast but a cliché reminder of how cruel the movie business can be. It's a thin line of fabulousness and fabricated self-conception, which is insanity. -like Sunset Boulevard the film- 

I like Ed Wood not because he an original failure, I like him because he tired living his dream without hurting people. I don't understand why the Gods did not hear his cry? In my thoughts maybe he is meant to make films not on earth but on other worlds, wherein films are made instant. All you need to do is to imagine and allow your Id to express it. Like the film Dreams by Robin Williams. -Not directly related but close to my description. 

Ed Wood reminds me of my undying passion for filmmaking and my love for story-telling, I hope as I start doing films again I will not hurt people. Haha... :-)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Gran Torino Review

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood), a retired Polish American Ford automobile assembly line worker and a Korean War veteran, lives in a changing Highland Park, Michigan neighborhood which is dominated by immigrants. At the start of the movie, Walt is attending his wife's funeral, bristling at the shallow eulogy of young Father Janovich (Christopher Carley). He similarly has no patience for his two sons, Mitch (Brian Haley) and Steve (Brian Howe) and their families who show little respect for Walt or their late mother. Throughout the movie Walt views them as spoiled and self-absorbed, avoiding him unless it is of their own interest; his sons see him as "always disappointed" with them and their families.
Walt's teenage Hmong neighbors, a shy Thao (Bee Vang) and his feisty sister Sue Vang Lor (Ahney Her), live with their mother and eccentric grandmother. When a Hispanic gang confronts Thao, the Hmong gang, led by Thao's older cousin Spider (Doua Moua), helps Thao by frightening the Hispanic gang and forcing them to flee. The Hmong gang, at that point, tries to persuade Thao to join them. Thao's initiation is to steal Walt's prized 1972 Gran Torino Sport. Walt interrupts the robbery, pointing a rifle in Thao's face and forcing him to flee. After a few days, Spider and his gang return. With Sue at his side, Thao manages to verbally confront them to no avail. The gang drags Thao off his porch in an attempt to assault him. His family tries desperately to fend off Spider and his cohorts. The conflict ends when Walt, who fought in the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division, threatens the gang members with his M1 Garand rifle and orders them to "get off my lawn." They leave the neighborhood, telling Walt to watch his back.
The Vang Lors thank a grumpy and impatient Walt, who insists he only wanted the "gooks" off his property. When the neighborhood hears of Walt's brave act, they reward him by decorating his porch with Hmong dishes and garden plants. Thao admits to trying to steal his Gran Torino. Walt is not pleased, seeking only to be left alone. Father Janovich goes to Walt, reminding him of his wife's desire for him to go to confession. Walt refuses.
After seeing Sue being harassed by three black teenagers, while her "date" (Scott Eastwood) cannot help her, Walt steps in to rescue her, confronting the teenagers and threatening them with a Colt 1911 pistol. Sue gets to know Walt, and invites him to a family barbecue, bringing him closer to her family, explaining Hmong culture and that during the Vietnam War they fought on "his" side. Sue, Thao, and their mother confront Walt and his Labrador Retriever Daisy the next day, volunteering Thao to work for Walt to atone for his attempted theft of the Gran Torino. Walt has Thao clean up the neighborhood until his debt is paid and shows Thao the ways of American men. He gets Thao a construction job and encourages him to date another Hmong girl called Youa, whom Walt refers to as "Yum Yum".
After discovering blood when he coughs, Walt visits the doctor. Here again he is confronted by the changing times, seeming to be the only white man in the waiting room, his name is mispronounced by a middle-eastern nurse, and he's informed by his examining Asian woman doctor that his old familiar doctor retired three years earlier. After viewing the results of his examination he calls his son Mitch and awkwardly tries to talk but the the call is cut short when the son tells Walt he is busy. The Hmong gang, meanwhile, keeps pressuring Thao to join them. When they find Thao alone, they mug him and burn his face with a cigarette. Walt confronts and beats one of the Hmong gang members in retaliation. The gang returns days later and shoots up the Vang Lors' home, wounding Thao in the neck. Sue, who had left for her aunt's house before the shooting, returns, beaten and raped. The Hmong keep a code of silence and do not tell police who did it. Walt storms home, punching cupboards and bloodying his knuckles in anger. Father Janovich who has "worked with Asian gangs", visits. The two drink beer together, and discuss what Walt will do about it. He eventually goes to confession with Father Janovich, who after hearing a few old, and somewhat minor sins, tells him to pray.
An angry Thao urges Walt to take vengeance on the Hmong gang with him. Walt first tells him to come back later as revenge must be planned carefully. When Thao returns, Walt gives him the Silver Star medal he earned in Korea but locks him in the basement, saying he does not want him to live with the consequences of killing someone. It is worth noting that in this scene Walt is speaking to Thao about his most grevious sin - killing an enemy soldier "on his way home" - through a metal screen door extremely similar to the screen found in the confessional one scene earlier. Therefore, this scene can be viewed as Walt's actual "confession". Walt drives to confront the gang, calling Sue to have her unlock the basement and let Thao out. Outside the gang members' adjacent houses Walt berates them for the shootout and raping of Sue. As the jumpy gang members show their automatic weapons, Walt waits and watches neighbors begin to look out of their windows and from behind doors to witness. He takes out a cigarette from his jacket, puts it in his mouth, and asks the gang for a light. He begins praying the "Hail Mary" (which was the penance assigned to him by Father Janovich in confession) and then slowly reaches into his jacket, quoting "You got a light? Me? I've got a light." Thinking Walt is going to shoot, the gang unleashes a hail of fire, riddling Walt with bullets. A shot of Walt lying dead on the ground, in a crucifix-like pose, reveals he had grabbed his 1st Cavalry Division Zippo lighter, not a gun. Thao and Sue arrive at the crime scene and ask police what happened. Speaking in Hmong to a Hmong police officer they are told that the gang has been arrested and will be imprisoned for a long time, having killed an unarmed man. Hmong neighbors who witnessed the killing break their code of silence and testify against the gang members.
A funeral service is held for Walt with Father Janovich delivering a memorable eulogy of Walt, who is to be buried in a tailored suit he bought the same day he was killed. Thao and his family attend in a large number opposite Walt's family, which has Walt's son Mitch wondering how the Vang Lors know Walt. In his will, Walt leaves his house to the church, and his Gran Torino to Thao, much to the shock and anger of his family who expected to inherit the house to sell and the Gran Torino for Walt's granddaughter. In the final scene, Thao is driving the Gran Torino up Lakeshore Drive with Walt's dog, Daisy, next to him.


My Personal Review

The Film is more focused, super funny and less dramatic as compared to the Independent Film “Crush” with the same message of conflict in the American dream of Democracy of the multicultural migrants. The Film focuses on the foundation of discrimination, which is self-loathing upon oneself expressed through power-tripping by insecure individuals in the film, including the character of Clint Eastwood. His Jewish prowess prevails at the end of the film, “the hero and the lamb-of-sacrifice excluded among all race and the bad guys go jail to pay their failed American Dream of Democracy. As he repress his mourning not only for the death of his wife but also his living dead, -victims of false modernity- family, he finds himself alone with noisy neighbors bringing him weird food and Thao or Todd as his - Clint Eastwood’s character - fire of patriotism. The vintage car represents his dying self-love as nobody including himself is bewildered of his place in their community; as Thao is driving the “award” car, I felt sad not because Clint Eastwood died but because I saw how some Asians and other smart repressed race gets a free sack of rice by simply playing the oppressed and not the Hero, although I believe in the film everybody played their supposed roles, I just hope we Filipino’s in “General” be more sensitive of what we give and receive. For I believe that self-respect is not earned by being neither passive nor aggressive but by the strength of our conviction and our love for oneself and of others, the rest will follow; swift reaction to events will just lead us to unpredictable call for humility and martyrdom which is not limited by race nor language barrier but by the unspoken language of Love. I hope we Filipinos will be like Jewish heroes –like Jesus Christ- not by crucifying ourselves on the cross but by simply showing off how humble we can be just to preserve Peace. I don’t know what I am saying here but I guess the point of the film is charity begins at home, and being humble is not bad at all; it’s comparable to the Vintage Car; Fast, Simple and very sophisticated in taste. I am proud to be Filipino with or without a car. Haha…

I suggest to watch the film not because we want to feel oppressed "again" but because the film pictures -if not- the current the history of violence within a multi-cultural community in America. Just imagine your cute cousin as one of the characters and you will laugh out loud like your discreminating your own race. haha...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

My Pretensions of being a Cute Economist

My Pretensions of being a Cute Economist

I woke up bothered by the way my Nanay –Mother- handles her time and money. We went to a shopping mall and bought furniture for my books when she said, “Jp, there you go again you will buy something then never use it.” I replied “We’ll why do you buy lots and lots of jewelry without using them?” the bewildered saleslady smiled. Then my Mom’s eyes turned red -like a confused dragon. Anyway, she bought the book cabinet –of course the cheapest- in my thoughts “That is why China’s economy is blooming amidst the western economic crises because their concept of preserving wealth and deposing it is retailing” I remember when I am with Tatay –Father- he always reminds me of thinking in the long term even when buying or selling things. Think of the cheapest property or thing that has “resale” value. In my thoughts again “How about my books, painting and clothes?” I know they don’t have resale value but I suppose I can sell them to potential buyers who dreams of being me. Haha… Anyway, I think buying gold and stocks today is something the youth like me who doesn’t have money should buy. I suggest instead of buying “bullshit” non-designer and imitated clothes learn how to buy gold and learn how to trade stocks. Pretend you are smart by asking relevant questions. Haha… I have created four reasons, which are illusionary solutions as to why the Filipino People in “general”, especially the educated yet ill-informed –or simply lazy- public should buy and trade stocks and also gold.

 

  1. Most of the huge breast banks in the west are running out of cash –due to monopoly of interest rates or simply greed- So they will start to print money three times like what Marcos did and distribute it coming from their money factory –Central Bank. So buy something that will last forever, which will insure you that its value will not diminish over-time, thoughts –the time will come our paper money will be like play money can be used as a toilet paper like the one my Lola buys, suggestion visit Indonesia, one candy is like ten billion or something- haha…
  2. First of all learn how to buy and trade stocks. Hence, the credit crunch and the fluctuating interest rates due to the stupidity, not of our political system but by the politicians within the system preferring to serve the nation by being egotistic. Believing they have moles in their genitals to protect them from “Karma” haha…Anyway, buy cheap stocks and let it rest instead of letting it grow in a Bank. Playing in the stock market is like going to a casino imagine your self playing blackjack, thoughts –you don’t have an enemy just yourself, be greedy subconsciously- haha...
  3. Learn how to conserve energy, knowing that sex toys are battery operated, hence the more the public will consume energy the more Napocor will buy power resources, which of course is subject to oil, gas and other resources. They buy less locally and more internationally so the prices are unpredictable. Noting also the greedy monopoly that only people with great power yet small genitals can play. So be a wise spender of energy, it will not only help you save but also scare the cunning government. Thoughts –little mice can scare the elephant, imagine if they mate, how will the animal look like? Humm… simple just picture out "some" pretentious lawmakers in congress and in senate and you can spot the difference. Haha…
  4. Believe that God is within, meaning believe that God exist in every matter –humans/animals alike. From that thought all things that is not pretentious will explode like an orgasmic eruption of a horny volcano. Haha… Oh my god I forgot to mention not to judge and condemn haha… I suppose I need to go to Mount Apo and you know what I mean. haha...

 

 

Hope is for Free so buy Hope and get Lung Cancer for free. 

Monday, February 16, 2009

Yukio Mishima

YUKIO MISHIMA

mishima_head.jpg

Prolific writer, who is considered by many critics as the most important Japanese novelist of the 20th century. Mishima's works include 40 novels, poetry, essays, and modern Kabuki and Noh dramas. He was three times nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature. Among his masterpieces is The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956). The tetralogy The Sea of Fertility (1965-70) is regarded by many as Mishima's most lasting achievement. As a writer Mishima drew inspiration from pre-modern literature, both Japanese and Western.

"How oddly situated a man is apt to find himself at the age of thirty-eight! His youth belongs to the distant past. Yet the period of memory beginning with the end of youth and extending to the present has left him not a single vivid impression. And therefore he persists in feeling that nothing more than a fragile barrier separates him from his youth. He is forever hearing with the utmost clarity the sounds of this neighboring domain, but there is no way to penetrate the barrier." (from Runaway Horses, 1969)

Yukio Mishima was born Kimitaka Hiraoka in Tokyo, the son of a government official. Later he changed his name into Yukio Mishima so that his anti-literary father, Azusa, wouldn't know he wrote. The name Yukio can loosely be translated as "Man who chronicals reason." On his father's side Mishima's forebears were peasants, but his ambitious grandfather eventually climbed to the position of the governor of the Japanese colony on the island of Sakhalin. Mishima's mother, Shizue Hashi, came from a family of educators and scholars.

Mishima was raised mainly by his paternal grandmother, Natsu Nagai, a cultured but unstable woman from a samurai family, who hardly allowed the boy out of her sight. During World War II Mishima was excused military service, but he served in a factory. This plagued Mishima throughout his life - he had survived shamefully when so many others had been killed. "I believe one should die young in his age," wrote Mishima's friend, the writer Hasuda, who committed suicide after the war.

Mishima entered in 1944 Tokyo University, where he studed law, and then worked as a civil servant in the finance ministry for eight months before devoting himself entirely to writing. In 1946 Mishima met Kawabata Yasunari, who recommended Mishima's stories to important magazines. His first major work, Confessions of a Mask (1949), dealt with his discovery of his own homosexuality. The narrator concludes, that he would have to wear a mask of 'normality' before other people to protect himself from social scorn.

The largely autobiographical work reflected Mishima's masochistic fantasies. His preoccupation with the body, its beauty and degeneration, marked several of his later novels. Mishima wished to create for himself a perfect body that age could not make ugly. He started body building in 1955 and he also became an expert in the martial arts of karate and kendo. Perhaps preparing for his death, Mishima liked to pose in photographs as a drowned shipwrecked sailor, St. Sebastian shot death with arrows, or a samurai committing ritual suicide. In 1960 he played a doomed yakuza, Takeo, in Yasuzo Masumura's film Karakkaze Yaro (Afraid to Die). At the end Takeo is killed, dying in a stairway. Many of Mishima's later short stories and novels delt with the theme of suicide and violent death.

''Let us remember that the central reality must be sought in the writer's work: it is what the writer chose to write, or was compelled to write, that finally matters. And certainly Mishima's carefully premeditated death is part of his work.'' (Mishima: A Vision of the Void by Marguerite Yourcenar, 1985)

AI NO KAWAKI (1950, Thirst for Love), written under the influence of the French writer François Mauriac, was a story about a woman who has become the mistress of her late husband's father. KINKAKUJI (1956, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) was based on an actual event of 1950. It depicted the burning of the celebrated temple of Kyoto by a young Buddhist monk, who is angered at his own physical ugliness, and prevents the famous temple from falling into foreign hands during the American occupation. "My solitude grew more and more obese, like a pig." (from Temple of the Golden Pavilion)

The Sound of Waves (1954) has been filmed several times. The story, set in a remote fishing village, tells of a young fisherman, Shinji, who meets on the beach a beautiful pearl diver, Hatsue, the daughter of Miyata, the most powerful man in the village. Hatsue is loved by another young man, Yasuo. Miyata forbids Hatsue to continue seeing Shinji, but when Shinji shows his courage during a storm, he finally gives him and his daughter his blessing. The first film version from 1954, directed by Senkichi Taniguchi, was shot on location in the Shima Peninsula in Mie Prefecture, home of Japan's famous women pearl divers.

Mishima's reputation in Japan started to decline in the 1960s although in other countries his works were highly acclaimed. Silk and Insight (1964) dealt again lost ideals, but this time the story was set in the world of silk textile manufacturing and was based on a real strike that took place in 1954. The central characters are an old-fashioned factory owner, Komazawa, and a manipulating political operator, Okano.

Mishima was deeply attracted to the patriotism of imperial Japan, and samurai spirit of Japan's past. However, at the same time he dressed in Western clothes and lived in a Western-style house. In 1968 he founded the Shield Society, a private army of some100 youths dedicated to a revival of Bushido, the samurai knightly code of honour. In 1970 he seized control in military headquarters in Tokyo, trying to rouse the nation to pre-war nationalist heroic ideals. On November 25, after failure, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual disembowelment) with his sword. Before he died he shouted, ''Long live the Emperor.'' As he fell on the carpet, he was beheaded by one of his men, acting as akaishaku, the one who delivers the decapitating sword-blow.

On the day of his death Mishima delivered to his publishers the final pages of Tennin Gosui (The Sea of Fertility), the authors account of the Japanese experience in the 20th century. The first part of the four-volume novel, Spring Snow (1968), is set in the closed circles of Tokyo's Imperial Court in 1912. It was followed by Runaway Horses(1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970) and Five Signs of a God's Decay (1971). Each of the novels depict a different reincarnation of the same being, Honda, who dies at the age of twenty: first as a young aristocrat, then as a political fanatic in the 1930s, as a Thai princess before and after World War II, and as an evil young orphan in the 1960s. The tennin in the tetralogy's Japanese title refers to a supernatural being Buddhist theology, who has similarities with the Christian angel but who is mortal.

"Just let matters slide. How much better to accept each sweet drop of the honey that was Time, than to stoop to the vulgarity latent in every decision. However grave the matter at hand might be, if one neglected it for long enough, the act of neglect itself would begin to affect the situation, and someone else would emerge as an ally. Such was Count Ayakura's version of political theory." (From Spring Snow, 1968)

In his plays Mishima showed interest in the traditional Japanese theater and Western themes. His dramas, written for the Western style theatre, include Rokumeikan (1956), which deals with a ball given for the Emperor's birthday,Tenth Day Chrysanthemum (1961), Madame de Sade (1965), an effort to see Marquis de Sade through women's eyes, The Fall of the House Suzaku (1967), and My Friend Hitler (1969). Mishima wrote several Kabuki pieces. His last work, The Moon Like a Drawn Bow, was performed in 1969 at the National Theatre. The play ended with scene of a seppuku. Mishima was considered to be in his time the only living author talented enough to write Kabuki plays in traditional style.

For further reading: The Madness and Perversion of Yukio Mishima by Jerry S. Piven (2004); Mishima: A Biographyby John Nathan (2000); The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima by Henry Scott-Stokes (1995); Deadly Dialectics by Roy Starrs (1994); Escape from the Wasteland by Susan Napier (1991); Mishima by Marguerite Yourcenar (1985); Mishimaby J. Nathan (1974); The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima by H. Scott-Stokes (1974) - Film: Mishima (1985), directed by Paul Schrader, starring Ken Ogata, narration read by Roy Scheider. A violent kaleidoscope of the author's life. Scenes of Mishima's life shot in black & white, dramatizations of key fictional works in opulent color, photographed by John Bailey, score by Philip Glass. - Suom.: Mishiman näytelmistä on suomennettu mm. Sadannes yö. - See alsoYasunari Kawabata

Selected works:

  • HANAZAKARI NO MORI, 1944
  • MISAKI NITE NO MONOGATARI, 1947
  • YORU NI SHITAKU, 1947
  • SHISHI, 1948 (based on Euripides' Medea)
  • KATAKU, 1948 (play)
  • AYA NO TZUZUMI, 1948 (play)
  • KARI TO EMONO, 1948
  • KAMEN NO KOKUHAKU, 1949 - Confessions of a Mask (trans. by Meredith Weatherby) - Erään naamion tunnustuksia
  • AI NO KAWAKI, 1950 - Thirst for Love (trans. by Donald Keene) - film 1966, dir. by Koreyoshi Kurahara, screenplay by Toshiya Fujita, Koreyoshi Kurahara
  • AO NO JIDAI, 1950
  • KINJIKI, 1951 - Forbidden Colours (trans. by Alfred H. Marks)
  • SOTOBA KOMACHI, 1952 (play)
  • MANATSU NO SHI, 1952 - Death in Midsummer (trans. by Ivan Morris)
  • HIGYO, 1952-53
  • NIPPONSEI, 1952-53
  • YUYA, 1953 (play)
  • SHIROARI NO SHU, 1953 (play)
  • YORU NO HIMAWARI, 1953 - Twilight Sunflower (trans. by Shigeho Shinozaki and Virgil A. Warren)
  • FUGUSHU, 1954 - Revenge
  • SHIOSAI, 1954 - The Sound of Waves (trans. by Meredith Weatherby) - Aaltojen pauhu (suom. Irmeli Nykänen) - films: 1954, dir. by Senkichi Taniguchi, starring Akira Kubo, Kyoko Aoyama, Yoichi Tachikawa, Keiko Miya; remade by director Kenjiro Morinaka in 1964, screenplay by Goro Tanada, by Shiro Moritani in 1971, by Katsumi Nishikawa in 1975, and by Tsugunobu Kotani in 1985
  • SHIZUMERU TAKI, 1955
  • SHIROARI NO SU, 1956
  • HANJO, 1956 (play)
  • KINDAI NOGAKU SHU, 1956 - Five Modern No Plays (trans. by Donald Keene)
  • SHI WO KAKU SHONEN, 1956 - The Boy Who Wrote Poetry
  • KINKAKUJI, 1956 - The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (translated by Ivan Morris) - Kultainen temppeli (suom. Sirpa Kauppinen) - films: Enjo, 1958, dir. by Kon Ichikawa; 1976, dir. by Yoichi Takabayashi, screenplay by Yukio Mishima
  • ROKUMEI KAN, 1956 (play) - film: 1986, dir. by Kon Ichikawa, starring Bunta Sugawara, Ruriko Asaoka, Koji Ishizaka, Kiichi Nakai
  • BITOKU NO YOROMEKI, 1957 - film: 1957, dir. by Kô Nakahira, screenplay by Kaneto Shindô
  • BARA TO KAIZOKU, 1958
  • RATAI TO ISHO, 1959
  • KYOKO NO IE, 1959
  • YUKOKU, 1960 - Patriotism (trans. by Geoffrey W. Sargent) - film: 1966, dir. by Domoto Masaki, Yukio Mishima, screenplay by Yukio Mishima
  • YOROBOSHI, 1960 - Yoroboshi: The Blind Young Man
  • NETTAIJU, 1960 (play)
  • OJOSAN, 1960 - film: 1961, dir. by Taro Yuge, screenplay by Kimiyuki Hasegawa
  • UTAGE NO ATO, 1960 - After the Banquet (trans. by Donald Keene) - Juhlan jälkeen (suom. Helvi Vasara)
  • YOROBOSHI, 1960 (play)
  • TOKA NO KIKU, 1961 (play) - Tenth Day Chrysantheum
  • SUTA, 1961
  • KUROTOKAGE, 1961 (play, stage adaptation of Edogwa Rampo's story) - Black Lizard - films: 1962, dir. by Umetsugu Inoue; 1968, dir. by Kinji Fukasaku, starring Akihiro Miwa, Isao Kimura
  • KEMO NO TAWAMURE, 1961 - film 1964, dir. by Sokichi Tomimoto, screenplay by Kazuro Funabashi
  • UTSUKUSHII HOSHI, 1962
  • AI NO SHISSO, 1962
  • NIKUTAI NO GAKKO, 1963 - School of Flesh - films: 1965, dir. by Ryo Kinoshita, adaptation by Toshirô Ide; L'École de la chair, 1998, dir. by Benoît Jacquot, starring Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Martinez, Vincent Lindon, Marthe Keller
  • GOGO NO EIKO, 1963 - The Sailor who Fell from the Grace with the Sea (trans. by John Nathan) - Kunnia on katkera juoma (suom. Eeva-Liisa Manner) - film: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, 1976, dir. by Lewis John Carlino, starring Kris Kristofferson, Sarah Miles, Jonathan Kahn
  • KEN, 1963 - film: 1964, dir. by Kenji Misumi, screenplay by Kazuro Funabashi
  • HAYASHI FUSAO RON, 1963
  • WATAKUSHI NO HENREKI JODAI, 1964
  • KINU TO MEISATU, 1964 - Silk and Insight (trans. by Hiroaki Sato)
  • MIKUMANO MODE, 1965
  • SADO KOSHAKU FUJIN, 1965 - Madame de Sade (play, trans. by Donald Keene) - TV drama 1992,Markisinnan de Sade, dir. by Ingmar Bergman, screenplay by Ingmar Bergman, starring Stina Ekblad, Anita Björk, Marie Richardson
  • EREI NO KOE, 1966
  • HAN-TEIJO DAIGAKU, 1966
  • SUSAKU-KE NO METSUBO, 1967 - The Fall of the House Susaku (play)
  • HAGAKURE NYUMON, 1967 - The Way of Samurai (trans. by Kathryn N. Sparling)
  • YOROBOSHI, 1968
  • HARU NO YUKI, 1968 - Spring Snow (trans. by Michael Gallagher) / (HOJO NO UMI / The Sea of Fertility) - film: 2005, dir. by Isao Yukisada, screenplay by Chihiro Itou, starring Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yuko Takeuchi, Sosuke Takaoka, Mitsuhiro Oikawa
  • WA GA TOMO HITTORA, 1968 - My Friend Hitler and Other Plays of Mishima Yukio (trans. by Hiroaki Sato)
  • TAIYO TO TETSU, 1968 - Sun and Steel (trans. by John Bester)
  • HOMBA, 1969 - Runaway Horses (trans. by Michael Gallagher) / (HOJO NO UMI / The Sea of Fertility)
  • BUNKA BOEI RON, 1969
  • SHOBU NO KOKORO, 1970
  • YUKOKU NO GENRI, 1970
  • SAKKARON, 1970
  • BUNSHO TOKUHON, 1970
  • GENSEN NO KANJO, 1970
  • SHOSETSU TOWA NANIKA, 1970
  • AKATSUKI NO TERA, 1970 - The Temple of Dawn (trans. by E. Dale Saunders and Cecilia Segawa Seigle) / (HOJO NO UMI / The Sea of Fertility)
  • TENNIN GOSUI, 1971 - Five Signs of God's Decay / The Decay of the Angel (trans. by Edward G. Seidensticker) / (HOJO NO UMI / The Sea of Fertility)
  • WAGA DOSHI KAN, 1971
  • WAGA SHISHUNKI, 1972
  • Acts of Worship: Seven Stories By Yukio Mishima, 1989 (translated by John Bester)
  • Mishima on Stage: the Black Lizard and Other Plays (edited by Laurence Kominz)

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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Tom of Finland

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Tom of Finland's real name is Touko - because he was born on 8 May 1920, on the south coast of Finland, and May in Finnish is "Toukokuu". His homeland had been independent for just three years when Touko was born, and outside its few cities the country was still rough and wild. The men who worked in the fields and woods, the farmers and loggers, were true frontiersmen, every bit as rough and wild as the countryside.



Touko grew up among those men but was not a part of their world. Both his parents were schoolteachers, and they raised Touko indoors in an atmosphere of art, literature and music. Obviously talented, by the time he was five he was playing the piano and drawing comic strips. He loved art, literature and music.

But he loved those outdoorsmen even more. At that same age of five, Touko began to spy on a neighbour, a muscular, stomping farmboy whose name, "Urho", means "hero". Urho was the first in a long line of heroes to hold Tom's attention while he memorized every flex of their lean muscles, every humorous twist of their full lips.


In 1939, Touko went to art school in Helsinki to study advertising. His fascination expanded to include the sexy city types he found in that cosmopolitan port - construction workers, sailors, policemen - but he never dared proposition them. It was not until Stalin invaded Finland and Tom was drafted into a lieutenant's uniform that he found nirvana in the blackouts of World War II. At last, in the streets of the pitch-black city, he began to have the sex he had dreamed of with the uniformed men he lusted after, especially once the German soldiers had arrived in their irresistible jackboots. After the war, Touko went back to studying art and also took piano classes at the famed Sibelius Institute. Peace put an end to blackout sex and uniforms became rare again, so Touko returned to his teenage practice of locking himself in his room, stripping naked, and stroking himself with one hand while the other hand created on paper what he could seldom find on the streets.


By day, he did freelance artwork - advertising, window displays, fashion design. In the evenings, he played the piano at parties and cafes, becoming a popular member of Helsinki's post-war bohemian set. He avoided the fledgling gay scene, because what were then called "artistic" bars were dominated by the flamboyant effeminacy typical of the time. He traveled frequently, becoming very familiar with the gay cruising areas found in every major city. Still, in 1953, when he met Veli, the man with whom he would live for the next 28 years, it was on a street corner a few blocks from home.



At the end of 1956, at the urging of a friend, Touko sent his secret artwork to a popular American muscle magazine, but, being cautious in those paranoid times, and anyway thinking that "Touko Laaksonen" was too tough a name for American tongues, he signed them,"Tom". The editor loved them. The cover of the Spring 1957 issue of "Physique Pictorial" features a laughing lumberjack, drawn by "Tom of Finland". It was a sensation. Touko became Tom of Finland. The rest is history.



The demand for what Tom always called his "dirty drawings" grew quickly, but neither erotic art nor homosexual art paid very well in the Fifties. He soon stopped playing the piano in order to devote the time to his drawing, but it would be 1973 before Tom of Finland was making enough money for Touko Laaksonen to be able to quit his daytime job in advertising. Once he could devote his efforts full-time to his erotic drawing, Tom combined photorealistic attention to detail with his wildest sexual fantasies to produce a body of work that, for sheer homoerotism, will probably never be surpassed.


1973 was also the year of Tom's first art exhibition, in Hamburg, Germany, but that experience was so negative (all but one of the drawings were stolen) that it would be 1978 before he would agree to another exhibit, in Los Angeles, for which he made his first trip to America.  Over the next couple of years, a series of exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, with trips to America for each one, turned the shy Helsinki artist into an international gay celebrity with friends the like of Etienne and Robert Mapplethorpe. The business end of his career was taken up by a Canadian American, Durk Dehner, and under his capable management Tom at last had financial security. In 1981, Tom's lover, Veli, died of throat cancer; at the same time, the AIDS epidemic began to hit hard the very cities and circles of friends he had so recently come to love in America. Still, throughout the Eighties, the trips to America continued to increase until Tom was spending six months in L.A. with Durk Dehner for every six he spent back in Helsinki. After emphysema was diagnosed in 1988, Tom was forced to curtail his beloved traveling but continued to draw.  

 
When the disease, and the medication, made his hand tremble too much for him to execute the finely detailed work for which he had become famous, Tom switched back to a childhood favourite, pastel, executing a richly coloured series of nudes in that medium almost up until his death from an emphysema-induced stroke on 7 November 1991. In spite of his own affectionate term, Tom's work must be considered more than just "dirty drawings", and given some of the credit for the change in the gay world's self-image. When Tom's work was first published, homosexuals thought they had to be imitation women, and spent their lives hiding in the shadows. Thirty-five years later, gays were much more likely to be hard-bodied sun-lovers in boots and leather, masculinity personified. Tom's influence in that direction was no accidental byproduct of his art. From the beginning, he consciously strove to instill in his work a positive, up-beat openness. When asked if he was not a little embarrassed that all his art showed men having sex, he disagreed emphatically: "I work very hard to make sure that the men I draw having sex are proud men having happy sex!"

 

by Valentine Hooven III
Author of the full-length biography "Tom of Finland - His Life and Times" published by St. Martin's Press in 1993 (source for biographical photographs). This short biography is taken from the Taschen monograph "Tom of Finland" published in 1992.

Goh Mishima

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Ironically, the Japanese artist Goh Mishima, born Tsuyoshi Yoshida in 1924, was one year older than Yukio Mishima, the iconoclastic writer whose surname he appropriated for his own artistic pseudonym. Furthering the irony, "Yukio Mishima" was itself a pseudonym, concocted as an admiring tribute to an older Japanese poet, who presumably wrote under the name he had been born with.

Goh Mishima had a traditional education, and was inducted into the army at age 18 where he had his first homosexual encounter with another soldier. After Japan"s defeat and the end of World War II, Mishima immersed himself in the emerging gay subculture in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo where he had frequent contacts with American soldiers, and became accustomed to a lavish lifestyle thanks to the patronage of an American officer.

In 1972, Barazoku, Japan's first gay magazine, began publication. Mishima contributed photographs and illustrations, but quickly became disenchanted with the magazine's "pretty boy" image and created his own publication, Sabu, which was named for his favorite bartender. Sabu promoted a new male image with a more masculine and sexually aggressive attitude, and Mishima was responsible for all cover art for the magazine.

Mishima's reputation as an artist and magazine editor continued to grow in the small and cohesive gay community in Tokyo, with the artist producing great numbers of drawings in his small apartment above a sushi restaurant in the Meguro district of Tokyo, where he eventually dies on January 5, 1988 of complications from a year-long sickness with cirrhosis of the liver. A special issue of Barazoku is published to memorialize and honor Mishima; the issue celebrates his greatness and acknowledges him as a pioneer in the new freedoms of a gay sensiblilty.

In 1999, Bungaku Ito, editor in chief of Barazoku and another pioneer in Japan's gay community, presents the Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, with three homoerotic artworks by Mishima for its permanent collection; the works are selected from Mishima's private collection, which is known to be one of the largest collections of homoerotic art in Japan.

timeline

1924
Born in Tokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan; given name is Tsuyoshi Yoshida; attends traditional Japanese schools.

1942
At 18 he is inducted into the Japanese army; first homosexual experiences occur at this time with other soldiers.

1945
Leaves army after defeat of Japan and end of World War II; becomes active in the emerging underground nightlife of bars and clubs in Shinjuku area of Tokyo, and engages in frequent sexual contact with American soldiers stationed in Tokyo -- soldiers who are the sole source of alcohol and tobacco; despite the poverty and destruction of postwar Japan, he maintains lavish lifestyle and is supported by an American officer.

The disarray of post-war Tokyo creates many opportunities for illegal activities, and the Yakuza (Japanese style mafia) emerges and becomes powerful in nightclubs, gambling, prostitution, and shipping businesses; the Yakuza style consists of hypermasculine attitude, violent behavior, expressionless faces, short haircuts called "kakugari" and elaborate body tattoos; his contact with Yakuza and his fascination with their look exerts strong influence on later artwork.

1955
First meets Yukio Mishima at athletic gym; they quickly establish close and meaningful relationship, and share interests in bodybuilding, karate, fencing, and exercise; more importantly, they both have an interest in and admiration of male body, attributes of masculinity, and homosexuality; and share a sexual attraction to the same type of body style and similar male fetishistic obsessions; Yukio Mishima encourages him to express homoerotic desires in his artwork, and he seriously begins to draw the male nude (including the realistic depiction of genitals which was illegal) and would pursue for the rest of his life; in respect and admiration, he adopts Yukio Mishima's last name, and creates the pen-name of Goh Mishima. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Goh Mishima becomes familiar with and a great admirer of the drawings of Tom of Finland. He and Tom of Finland (1920-1991) are of the same generation, and their artistic careers and sociosexual impact share many similarities.

At this time, Yukio Mishima had published a number of distinguished articles and books that had established him as one of the most important authors to emerge in Japan during the twentieth century. It is of interest to note that Yukio Mishima (born one year after Goh Mishima) had also changed his name (at age sixteen) from Kimitake Hiraoka to Yukio Mishima, a pen-name that was somehow related to his admiration of the famous poet, Sachio Ito. He continued an illustrious career as an author, lecturer, and intellectual.

1970
Yukio Mishima commits "seppuku" or "hara-kiri" (a ritualized disembowelment) and is subsequently beheaded by one of his political followers. In keeping with Yukio Mishima's death, Goh Mishima realistically depicts torture, bondage, self-inflicted pain, and hara-kiri in numerous drawings completed after Yukio's demise.

1972
Barazoku, the first gay magazine in Japan, begins publishing; Goh Mishima is responsible of photographs and illustrations in the magazine, but contributes only one cover drawing in 1973.

1974
Dissatisfied with the "pretty boy" image of Barazoku magazine, Mishima begins his own male magazine, Sabu, which was named after the artist's favorite bartender. Sabu promotes a new style and type of male image, preferring a more "masculine" and sexual attitude. Mishima is responsible for all cover art for the magazine.

Mishima's reputation as an artist and magazine editor continues to grow in the small and cohesive gay community in Tokyo. He produces great numbers of drawings in his small apartment above a sushi restaurant in the Meguro district of Tokyo, and both gives away and sells artworks.

1988
Goh Mishima dies in Tokyo on January 5, of complications from a year-long sickness with cirrhosis of the liver. Mishima dies three days before the Japanese Emperor also dies, which brings an end to the Showa era. A modern era then begins that slowly, but gradually, sees the emergence of a more visible and vocal gay population in Japan, and the increasing appreciation of homoerotic artworks, especially those by Goh Mishima.

1989
A special issue of Barazoku is published to memorialize and honor Goh Mishima; this issue celebrates his greatness and acknowledges him as a pioneer in the new freedoms of a gay sensiblilty.

1999
Bungaku Ito, editor in chief of Barazoku and another pioneer in Japan's gay community, presents the Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, with three homoerotic artworks by Goh Mishima for the Foundation collection; the works are selected from his private collection, which is known to be one of the largest collections of homoerotic art in Japan.

The Art of Japanese Homo-Erotica


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Ménage à Trois

Early 1800’s

Kitagawa Utamaro
(1753 – 1806)

Bisexual ménage à trois with two men kissing.

Source: Fukuda Kazuhiko, 
Füzoku ehon ukiyoe (Tokyo: Kawade shobö)

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Threesome

Suzuki Harunobu
(1725-1770)

Man, discovering mistress with female-role actor, has intercourse with her while masturbating him. He is about to apply some of his saliva to the youth’s penis to heighten the sensation.

Lawrence E. Gichner, Erotic Aspect of
Japanese Culture, 
New-York, n.p., 1963.







Is Love enough for humans to survive?


DON'T READ THESE IF YOUR NOT BELOW 18 or Stupid (Joke) 

Considering the effects of the global economic  and environmental crises, it seem to be that most of us has become jaded. We go to work, eat, shop and fuck once in a while. Our redundant daily activities has become so boring that we find romantic love as overrated or over-the-top unnecessary. So I have created 10 rules in making "my" future relationships not only boring but sexually satisfying. 

THE ETERNAL RULES 

1. Don't lie if you can't get away with it, because love is comparable to a white lie.
2. Love animals especially Apes, just don't forget to use condom before the big fight. 
3. Be presentable before you go for a date, just don't forget to jerk-off so you won't be tensed. 
4. Love nature, public nudity is okay, just don't forget to bring a mosquito repellant. 
5. Read the Newspaper before a date, so you can forecast your ejaculation. 
6. Don't let your insecurities undermine your charms, let the enormity of your genitals speak for it self. 
7. Be inquisitive let your inner child play, morning masturbation is healthy. (Caution: Applicable for men and animals) 
8. Be the first to know, let the world be your playground, just don't forget to bring your magic broom, it's a good substitute for a Dildo.
9. Let Peace is reign, so that we can be free, and proliferate like rats and live forever eating corn-flakes. 
10. Love unconditionally, just don't forget to be smart in choosing a partner. 

The nature of love is deceitful, its like an insecure bitch/witch tempting possible clients. However, if all is said and done and life becomes perfect, I think it will be boring if we just fuck and fuck without emotions. So lets love one another and look at the better side of life even with uncertainty, for life without love is like life with out meaning. 

Follow the rules and you will live like me, a spotless yet heartless pig. (Haha...)





Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Godess of Love is Loveless

My Valentines day was not only sad but full endless and redundant realizations. And to make make it easy for desperate people -loveless- to read my thoughts I created my ten commandments of being in love with love without someone to molest.

1. Love is blind! (who cares!)
2. Love is colorless, hence color-blind people are loveless.
3. Love is unconditional, and I believe Pre-nuptial Agreements shall be illegal.
4. Love is the key to happiness, that is why married people covet.
5. Love is uneducated and stupid, that is why the population rate of our country is High.
6. Love is like a flower, humm... I don't eat meat. Hahahaha...
7. Love is powerful, bullshit! Only in first world countries wherein electricity rates are low.
8. Love is truly good for the heart, that is why I don't eat roast pig. Hahaha...
9. Love is God, I am the son of God so Praise me. Hahahaha...
10. Love is eternal, that is why I am jaded.

These thoughts made me believe that in all things love exist, the sad part is when we define love as something quantifiable in temporal terms that we fail to see the real essence of it. Happy Valentines and Welcome to my Blog.

Love,

Pegasus Hahaha....