The real king of all mosters please stand up

If you are into the giant monster movies that dominated the 70's and early 80's (in Japan at least) they you know that King Kong is the undisputed king of monsters. He fought Godzilla, among other monsters, and won - but the real battle is with the hearts and minds of audiences. That battle has only one winner, and it is Godzilla.

Since 1954, Gozilla has rampaged across Japan so many times that one would be surprised they have any buildings standing. The construction industry should be the number one industry in the country according to the movies and destruction (second would be rocketry, though it never has any effect). Yet in Japan, everyone loves Godzilla. And in America too. He even as a star on the Walk of Fame.

America loved the big scaly atomic beast so much that we tried to do what we do with all great foreign films, we usurped it. Yes there was an American version of Godzilla. It was a plodding, ignorant, weak beast. It was so unappealing that fans were screaming for the real Godzilla to re-appear. And he did.

But America was not done. Though a fan failure and critically panned, the American Godzilla movie made $380 million - which only goes to show how much of a superstar the fictional character is. Legendary Films decided to try and give it another go.

Rumors have been flying, but it is now official. 2012 will be the year that Godzilla comes back once again. This time with the blessing of Toho Company Ltd, we will get a King of Monsters that fans will enjoy.

"Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has." - Thomas Tull, chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures

Hopefully this means that we will get a Godzilla that is around 300 feet tall, gray possibly with a green tint, probably about 60,000 tons, with atomic heat blasts, massive regeneration, and looks like the oddest dinosaur ever imagined. A repeat of the failure from New York will not be appreciated.

Legendary Pictures should do a great job though. Batman Begins was a great revisioning of the series. Clash of the Titans looks to also be stunning visually.

I hope that they bring back Mechagodzilla too. Now that would be a fight. And at 56 years old, I still would bet on Godzilla.

Jazz otaku - the things you learn

When you think of Jazz music what comes to your mind? Take a moment, I’ll wait.

Now some might instantly come up with Miles Davis, or Herbie Hancock. Others might be thinking of Etta James. Some might envision the 1950’s in America, or perhaps Harlem in its heyday. For me all of these and other aspects of jazz come to mind. But I just learned of one aspect that I doubt most would come upon.

Jazz and Japan.

The 2 sound like an odd mix. It almost jars the mind to conceptualize the 2 together. But Jazz coffeeshops have long maintained the connection in Japan.

It is a post about Professor Michael Molasky of the University of Minnesota that provided me the connection that these 2 share. He is also a jazz pianist, and spent a year searching out the jazz coffeehouses. And in them he found a rich history which he shared with an audience at UCLA.

In reading about Prof. Molasky I found out that jazz was first introduced in coffeeshops in 1929. Of course the first such establishment was across from the University of Tokyo. And at the time jazz was not associated with African Americans by the general populace.

Even in the 1950’s when French films incorporated jazz wholesale there remained a separation of the expression and power of jazz and African Americans. But that changed in 1961 when Art Blakey did a tour of Japan. It was the first time multitudes of Japanese were able to see a Black man, let alone connect them to jazz music. Which in a way I find amazing.

I find it hard to understand how jazz could be separated from the artists and musicians that created it. That a music genre could be so isolated from those that created it. Of course there was no cable television, not music videos, so to a degree it is understandable. And when you add in the fact that the cost of audio equipment and foreign music was prohibitive to most Japanese people it make a tinge more sense. Yet for the otaku (roughly geeks or hardcore fans) I would have expected a different take.

Still Prof. Molasky expressed that it was the connection of Art Blakey and jazz that had many Japanese people not only going to the jazz coffeeshops, but also intensely following the Civil Rights Movement. Again this was something I was unaware of. I had no idea that anyone in Japan cared. Not because they were racist or anything of that nature, just because they are so far removed physically and socially.

Of course jazz in Japan was an inspiration, just as it was and is in America today. It was a feature with the Japanese Student Movement, influenced Nobel Prize winner Oe Kensaburo, and provided a living to Haruki Murakami.

All of this were things I had no idea of. I’ve always enjoyed jazz, and knew of its influence in Europe. But I always felt that the biggest impact was just here in the U.S. It seems that I was very wrong, and niaeve.

For me, I find it refreshing to have learned all of this. It’s a bit of humbling, and moreso learning. It makes my appreciation of jazz all the more stronger. And it makes the world just that much more friendly.

And for my readers that have never ventured far from the reheated refuse that is gangsta rap, or the overly commercialized R&B of these days, I suggest you check out jazz. There is more there than you might imagine. Just as I have learned today.