Deerhoof began to expand their sound with 2004′s Milk Man, but really became more studio-centric after 2007′s Friend Opportunity. I already posted The Perfect Me, but another track that demonstrates Deerhoof’s studio playfulness is a song called +81, which sounds so angular you can feel the crunch. Another favorite is The Galaxist, which recalls a drifting sound that reminded me of old 1970s prog bands. In 2011′s Deerhoof vs. Evil, the band took a poppier route, creating an album that was more accessible. They started moving steadily away from the simple guitar/bass/drums/vocals combo to pursue songs and ideas outside their usual make up. A song like Super Duper Rescue Heads is much catchier and immediate than past deerhoof material, but still feels like it’s from the same band. There’s also track on the record in which Satomi sings in spanish which makes it pretty unique and it’s just a great song – Qui Dorm, Nomes Somia. It this kind of cross cultural influence that makes Deerhoof pretty unique compared to their peers. There’s also a playfulness and experimentation that defines Deerhoof and reminds me of groups like Pavement in that they never make the same record twice. Hell, they have two songs named “Flower” and both sound completely different from one another. Compare the “Flower” (2003) from Apple O and the “Flower” (2012) from the most recent record Breakup Song – there are definite differences of course, being a decade gap, and you can see the evolution in the newer track. However, there’s still a common thread that still makes each song sound like Deerhoof – the sporadic drumming,  angular guitar playing, Satomi’s unique vocal style, as well as the odd song structures bring it all under one banner. So I’ll end this post with another track from Deerhoof vs. Evil. It’s called Behold a Marvel in the Darkness and it’s a catchier song, not to mention a favorite of mine.

I also thought it was interesting how the film portrays racism but in a way you never see very often, in terms of it not being white/black or American/Japanese. The division between Mina’s father and Demetrius only emphasizes this aspect, which is why I like when Demetrius confronts Mina’s father about the color of his skin, basically saying that there’s really little difference between us, and that this categorization of skin color is superficial at best. His past history in Uganda and getting expelled from his home country gives him reason to feel as he does, but I’m glad that Demetrius and Mina decide to stay together despite the pasts of their families. Someone in our class said that they kept expecting something crazy to happen, and I have to agree considering some of the other films we’ve watched (Better Luck Tomorrow for example) have dipped into the darkness, so the fact that this did not happen in this film makes it more unique in my opinion – this is about other things.

I view it almost as a psychological case-study, looking at an individual who suffers from bullying and neglect. I also find the visions Nao seems to have – such as Haruki #1′s ghost – to perhaps be extensions of this? Viewing it from another angle, Haruki’s ghost could be an extension of her feelings for her father considering she goes to great lengths to compare the two Harukis. And if it’s a real ghost, than perhaps communication from the afterlife is a valid answer. Ruth’s own memoir also serves a form of communication, as I interpret it as a much more “official” form Nao’s diary, albeit unfinished. Ruth’s dreams of Jiko, like Haruki’s ghost, serve as an otherworldly form of communication – perhaps it’s Ruth’s subconscious communicating with her. Maybe it’s Nao’s spirit making connection with Ruth? I mean if Nao’s fate is left unanswered, than we could theorize that perhaps Nao did die and maybe this is her way to reaching out to Ruth? I have no idea, but I like to speculate on these kinds of things.

Nao is always thinking about the “happier” times – her life back in Sunnyvale, her old friends, her father’s happiness – and Ruth thinks about her life in New York as well as her mother before she died. Before long, Ruth begins to pour most of her time into this diary, and despite their difference of age, connects with Nao at a most personal level. At one point, Ruth refers to writing as the “opposite of suicide”, meaning that writing is “about immortality. Defeating death or at least forestalling it”. The theme of life and death are very much tied to time and age, and Nao’s diary preserves her 2001 teenage self as if she poured a bit of her soul into it (harry potter reference!), which lends to the idea that writing is a form of “time travel”.

Even ghosts seem to make their way into this story, like when Haruki #1 returns in spectral form to Nao. Haruki’s letters contain a certain air of death, like storm clouds shrouding the country side, due to the nature of his position during the war. These letters reveal a deep personal shame of Haruki, and the darkness of his inevitable death resting in his mind. The truth that Haruki #1 chose to die on his own terms instead of taking the lives of others only strengthens this theme. Through all of this, Ruth becomes obsessed with Nao’s life and is taken by the idea that she needs to “save Nao”, possibly from death or from herself. Ruth’s own life has become bored and unproductive as she has been sitting on an unfinished memoir for years and I think Nao’s diary gives Ruth a much needed kick start in terms of getting her inquisitive mind going again – meaning something to focus on.

While reading the first leg of the book, I found it fascinating the way Ozeki broke up the structure of the book, blending Ruth’s own close reading of the material with the POV of Nao’s diary. Through this, we get to be inside Nao’s head and also Ruth’s, and it gives us a chance to interpret Nao’s words before Ruth even gets there. What gives Ruth such a drive to discover the truth behind this diary? It seems to me that Ruth has found a strong connection with Nao – a certain, desolate familiarity perhaps?

Nao is a very depressed person who has felt like time has slipped completely from her. At the tender age of 16, we find a person who has already given up on life. She is separated from the life she loved (in Sunnyvale) and has become this invisible, anonymous person. I feel Ruth might sympathize with such feelings, as she too is cut off from the life she loved (in New York) for a place where it seems, at least to me, that she might be too settled in. Her own concept of time loss corresponds with Nao’s, but Ruth’s loss is symbolized in a memoir that seems determined to remain unfinished. I also found a sense of “burden” placed upon both women’s shoulders. In Nao’s case, her father is suicidal and bares much of the weight for what happened to the family, which obviously affects Nao because she deeply worries about her father. Ruth had her own parental “burden” with her mother having Alzheimer’s, but since her mother’s death, has felt like perhaps she has done nothing worthwhile with her life since that “burden” passed. I’m eager to see how this connection develops but so far this is my take on it.

Liar, liar, bums on fire.

First of all, I thought the first hour of the film was great. It starts ominously with Khan being detained in an airport, but it quickly moves into his back-story and his relationship with his family. Seeing his early years, his mother’s love for him and his brother’s rejection of him was very interesting. I’ve never really met anyone with Aspergers before, so I cannot speak to the accuracy of his portrayal, but I found his performance to be very endearing. His relationship with Mandira plays out beautifully as they get to know each other and overall I enjoyed that aspect of the story very much. I also have to say that I love how this film also focused on the racism that exploded post 9/11 and how that affected the Khans because, much like the Japanese internment, it’s a part of American history that isn’t really represented on the silver screen very often. In that sense, this film serves a very important role in portraying a different side to the post-9/11 climate, and could do well to educate people that racism is still something that happens and needs to be dealt with. With a message as strong as this, you’d think it could be seen as a major victory. Here’s a hint: it isn’t.

The reason why I say this is because this film has a whole other racist issue, in which we meet a black community in Georgia which, for some reason, seem to live in a village straight out of the colonial days. When the film shifts into Forrest Gump mode (another problem I have with it haha), Khan finds himself in the care of a black woman named Mama Jenny in this strange town, and boy does this character feel like a Mammy/Aunt Jemima stereotype ripped right from the early 1900s. Despite this film making a big deal about Obama being the first black president, it didn’t really do a good job of portraying African Americans. The whole hurricane molly bit felt very forced, as if they were trying to hit me over the head with the theme, and I think they could have dropped that whole subplot. The film would have precious minutes shaved off its running time and we would have a much more cohesive film. So beyond that, the film had pacing issues, felt too bloated for its own good, and had some major continuity issues which I’ll address now. Okay so maybe “continuity” is not the right word, but this film handled the passage of time very poorly. It’s supposed to cover 2001-2008/09, but it never really feels like there’s any growth or difference with the characters. Mandira’s son and his friend seem to never age, despite being kids during 9/11 and apparently during high school as well. That part is more of a minor nitpick, but I felt like it the timeline was sort of cobbled together. All to all, My Name is Khan has the best intentions but it was just poorly executed. The only bright spots in this film were the two main characters as I thought their relationship was beautifully played out, but Mandira is sort of shuffled to the background during the second half of the film, which kind of sucks considering how much she brings to the film.

Overall, I give this film 2 1/2 bums out of 5.

Looking at a more recent example, in Kanye West’s work we find a huge selection of sampling that pulled from different bands and genres to create something new. Back in 2007 when Kanye West released “Stronger“, he used Daft Punk’s hit “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” as its foundation and through that created something different. The music video could also be seen as a form of “sampling” or perhaps “hermit crabbing”, as it’s massively influenced by the seminal anime film Akira. Another example is from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in which he sampled King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” for the song “Power” and made it work in a way that was completely different than before. I don’t think it’s very often that rappers or hip hop artists sample 1970s prog bands, but it’s the union of two different eras and styles that makes for a pretty interesting song. It is these influences that made Kanye feel a bit fresh compared to the “bitches n’ hoes” attitude that invaded much of hip hop through the  early 21st Century – although I have to say Kanye West can definitely be guilty of that as well. All to all, I wasn’t a huge fan of this book but it did get me to reexamine and acknowledge icons in our pup culture who are closely related in ways I never realized, and the similarities in approaches (such as sampling) are undeniable. There is a spirit of resistance found within these methods which help cross barriers and allow people of different backgrounds, gender and ethnicity to tap that same power and utilize it for themselves.

Another band I really like is Blonde Redhead, a 3-piece from New York which features singer/guitarist Kazu Makino along with brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace. Blonde Redhead specialize in alternative rock, wielding influences in noise rock, shoegaze, dream pop and others into their own sound. They’ve been around over 20 years now and have become an indie staple of sorts. Kazu Makino was born in Kyoto, Japan before immigrating to the United States at a young age. She attended art school in New York where she met the two brothers (in an Italian restaurant no less), and the three would form the backbone for Blonde Redhead for years to come. While the band released a bunch of records in the 90s that earned them a strong following, it wasn’t until 2004′s Misery is a Butterfly (the first album they released on indie titan 4AD records, a label best known for it’s artist repertoire like Pixies, Cocteau Twins and Throwing Muses) that the band was able to reach a larger audience. The song I’m posting here is a favorite from the following album 23, released in 2007 on 4AD records.

Click here to view the embedded video.