I Let My Fists Do The Talkin’

Following link to link to link I found this someone out-of-my-depth blog on Japanese culture.
NeoJaponisme

It seems geared towards academic hipsters and expats living in Japan (and being hiply academic over there) who are fluent in the language. The blog is in English, but sprinkled with kanji to clarify points. I was enjoying skimming it… it’s has a more interesting (cynical, grouchy, arty) point of view than the very G-rated and general-interest J-List blog (G-rated blog from the site that introduced the US to the Hello Kitty vibrator).

Then, in their archives I discovered my new favorite thing ever. Japan’s answer to The Electric Company—CURRICULUMACHINE.

A sample Curriculumachine sketch:

• To teach the word “shoeshine” (靴磨き), a shoeshiner is sitting down while a customer comes by, drops his briefcase, opens his fly, and urinates on his face.

The NeoJaponisme article does an amazing job of explaining the show so best to just hop over there and read the whole thing. Curriculumachine sounds amazingly terrible in the same way Pythagoras Switch is amazingly adorable.

Also, I find Electric Company (the real American one) both off-putting and depressing for reasons I have trouble putting into words. I may have watched it as a kid (I was the right age for the tail end of its syndication) but don’t really have any specific memory of it. I rented a couple of the DVDs when I was directing Free to be Friends (which was a comedy-musical stage show based on 1970’s New York kid show The Magic Garden and Free to be You and Me that we did at UCBT and then at the NY Fringe Fest). I dunno… it bummed me out for some reason. Especially the troupe of actors waving to the camera at the end. Maybe it’s the earnestness? And they’re all dead now? (They are not actually all dead now… but that’s what the waving makes me think of.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 4:41 am and is filed under J*Stuff, TV.