frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)


Originally, the JJ Collective was started to react to the latest news of the day--to try and approach the issues from a somewhat fresh perspective.

And, of course, that aim is still the same. Lately, though, it seems like the news isn't really out there--to me, anyway--and this is really unfortunate. I mean, obviously, things are going on out there, but the American media has just devolved into covering absolute tripe that just really does not matter

The average news day on CNN? A teacher sleeps with her pupil, a police officer something something, an 8-limbed girl...

and celebrity news.

I mean, these were also on the front page of CNN today:
Britney may or may not have run a red light
Justin Timberlake is hosting a PGA tour event

I know that this has been a criticism of the media for a long time--but we're hearing more about Britney than absolutely everyone on the planet...and I just really don't care. Who cares? It's just not even news. Is it important because she's a celebrity? SHE RAN A RED LIGHT! For heaven's sake--who gives a damn?

Like bsto's facebook status says--"bsto is a pimple on Paris Hilton's inner left ear"--this is bigger news than anything else. Are we going to start caring when Paris eats or when Britney bathes, too? It irritates me that the CNN anchors complain about the airtime that they give to these celebutants, but they're the ones covering it. It would be like me saying we have too many music posts at the Collective--I could easily fix that.

Really, though--the quality of American "news" is just appalling. I don't know what else to say beyond that, but it just really bugged me when I was searching out topics that I wanted to write on and found that the headlines at the top of CNN's page were the aforementioned ones.

---
A group of online forum members at MyFootBall club all paid 35 GBP ($70!) to buy out Ebbsfleet United, who are trying to gain entrance into England's League Two (the equivalent of Single A Minor League Baseball). The 20,000 fans now have say over what players to buy and what coaches to hire.

My biggest question is how they are going to come up with the money for transfers--do all of the 20,000 owners (they all have equal ownership) have to pay more money? Are they going to use ticket money? And, of course, not all of the fans are going to agree on players--so will it be a "majority rules" system, or will fans not have to pay for new players if they do not want them?

This is a really cool model...i want to do something like this one day...hopefully I'll get enough guys to buy Arsenal

:(


----

In Pakistan news, President Musharraf said that elections would not be held later than January 9 (my birthday), while Benazir Bhutto (two time ex-prime minister of Pakistan) is calling for Musharraf to quit.

Pat's point, that we'd rather know who has the weapons than who doesn't, is a good one. And, fine, appeasement is not as dirty of a word as we all think it is. However, President Bush just cannot afford to be a hypocrite on the matter--he needs to support Bhutto's push to oust Musharraf.

-----

And, today's video is Massive Attack's "Teardrop"



I'm not a huge Massive Attack fan, but the size of the band struck me--I think trip-hop groups tend to get written off as being small, unprofessional and lazy--but you can really tell Massive Attack really have it together, and Liz Fraser (the woman singing) was the former front-woman of the Cocteau Twins--one of shoegazing's most prominent bands.

Sigur Ros "Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa"


Sigur Ros are an Icelandic band--their name means "victory rose" in Icelandic. I'm sure you've heard of the band, so I'll avoid talking too much about them. The singer, Jonsi, views his voice as more as an instrument than as the focal point of the music, and though the band sang in Icelandic on their early releases, Jonsi cooed in "Hopelandic" later on (Hopelandic was said to be the band's own made-up language...they have since disavowed this, and Jonsi said that this was all a bunch of bs--that he was just cooing out sounds).

Regardless, I have always found this to be one of the band's most moving and riveting songs. The title means "a good day for airstrikes" in Icelandic--and though I don't know much else about the words, I'm not bothered. Sigur Ros' music really forces the listener to define their own meanings for the songs, which is something we're not allowed to do very often.

apple's love is rotten to the core.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Fine, the link is old--but that doesn't make it any less brutal.

Seriously, though--is this girl stupid? Does she not know what she can put lyrics in for each song under "notes"

(I kid, I kid--she's not stupid.)

It's just kind of a messed up thing to pull on a little girl. Fine, you don't want unsolicited ideas--but you don't send cease-and-desist letters to children.

-----

Slate has an interesting article on Disney World as well

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And, since I'm on an ambient kick (not ambien), I've posted some tracks. I know ambient isn't most people's cup of tea--but try it out. I don't really know what it is about ambient that's so captivating--it's like synthetic noise that actually sounds like we imagine nature sounds like...even though nature never really sounds like it at all.


M83 "Run Into Flowers"

M83's "Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts" redefined what could be done with cheap keyboards. No longer are they just for bad dance music--M83 really pushed the boundaries and made an album based heavily on My Bloody Valentine's seminal "Loveless" while using no guitars. The irony that one of the warmest albums ever created was done entirely with keyboards isn't lost on me.

Fennesz "Shiseido"

Fennesz (ne Christian Fennesz) is an Austrian based musician who has worked with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) and is really pushing the boundaries of glitch by layering his glitch on top of songs with rhythmic pop sensibilities. Most of the stuff by Fennesz on youtube is either fan-done or live stuff--so I went with "Shiseido". And, yes, though he is heavily influenced by Sonic Youth, the title of his most famous album, "Endless Summer", is an homage to the Beach Boys.

Boards of Canada "Dayvan Cowboy"/"Roygbiv"




"Dayvan Cowboy" is the band's first official video and was released in 2005, though they've been around since the late '90s. They are indeed named after the Film Board of Canada (whose work they sample heavily) though they hail from the UK. I couldn't find the links, but their music is heavily steeped in symbolism--Waco, Scientology--you name it and it's all there subliminally.


Mogwai "Helicon 1"


Fine, Mogwai isn't ambient, they're post-rock. Just the same, though--many people are unfortunately bored by both genres. They were, at one point, in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Loudest Band--and they lived up to that moniker when I saw them live.

This song is absolutely beautiful. Not to sound cheesy, but Mogwai is one of those band's that just don't sound as good on record as they do live--the records can't contain the volume and complexity that are vital to the band's mission.


I also looked for videos by Tim Hecker and Manual but could not find anything. Regardless, give them a look if you liked what you've seen/heard here.

--------------
For those dead set against ambient, don't fret--bsto and I are debating the significance of Jay-Z's newest album, so we'll get back to the rap soon.

And our thoughts go out to Kanye West--his mother, a noted academic and author, passed away Saturday night at the age of 58.

a fading (bathing) ape.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Today's post requires you to actually do some reading. Don't worry, it's interesting:

Portfolio.Com A Bathing Ape Article

I think A Bathing Ape is a company really worth reading up on--they're fascinating, really. The problem is that the streetwear blogs are:

a) poorly written
b) overly congratulatory.

(Evidenced here)

So, here it is: BAPE is a company that got big because of its anti-establishment business model. It took on the same approach that Louis Vuitton took on--manufacture in developed countries where one can charge more because labor is higher and, theoretically, "more skilled".

Then, the company sells it's items in select locations in major cities and marks up prices in order to build on exclusivity.


The problem that Louis Vuitton came across? The Japanese were flying to Paris to buy Louis bags, because the bags were 40% cheaper in France because of high Japanese tariffs.

With the expanding middle and upper classes in America, more and more people are able to "afford" Bapes $300 hoodies and $80 t-shirts. This does not mean that they are able to fly to NYC to buy the shirts, though.

And this is where BAPE is shooting itself in the foot. Fine, they want to be exclusive--but they just aren't capitalizing, and this is going to bite them--hard. BAPE was established in the early '90s and was distributed to friends and family--shirts were printed in runs of 25-80. The company started to grow too, and the exclusivity keep the prices where they're still at.

The problem, though, is that people's willingness to pay meets BAPE's selling price. And, within the past two years, the company has exploded--Clipse, the Neptunes, Jay-Z and Kanye all shout-out the brand in songs and wear the clothes at photo shoots. You don't get better exposure than that--and it's all free exposure. The company doesn't advertise--they charge customers for their catalogs.

But you can't have that kind of product placement without having actual product. The brand has one US store and one UK store--the rest of the operation is Japanese. With the ubiquity of the aforementioned artists in the last two/three years, the company has certainly become an American household name.

Yet, my three trips to their NYC store were met with no stock--absolutely nothing in my size. It's just insane that a company would not capitalize on the market. Nigo does not want the brand to be a fad, so he's refusing to put the product on.

What's happening, though, is that people are buying bootlegs. Nothing new here--there will be bootlegs forever. The problem is that the company's brand is being diluted--BAPE's all-over hoodies have become part of every high schooler's clothing arsenal. Most of the time, the kids are sporting fakes--not because they can't afford the real thing, but because they aren't in NYC or aren't able to find a real one. The band does not allow selling through online retailers--ebay may have a few, but most of the Bathing Ape product on ebay is fake.

The brand is being diluted BECAUSE of it's exclusivity. If the real thing was more available, fakes would be less prevalent and the brand would not be suffering from overexposure. However, demand has skyrocketed because of hip hop shoutouts and product has stayed relatively small to avoid relegating the brand to eventual fad status.

The fact is that the band is everywhere--fake or not--and that the only place it has to go is down. It's just a risky business move to rely of exclusivity for so long--especially when people have the willingness to pay (Q, in the business world profit equation) for a product. The price of the company's goods aren't going to kill it--the lack of product is.

Nigo wants the company to last--and fine, it's been around for 15 years. The fact is that you strike while the market is hot--you sell when there's demand. The company simply isn't doing that, and it's going to be something they regret. Fine, Nigo is filthy rich--but he had a chance to be even richer while maintaining the brand's culture. Instead, he essentially pushed it to become a disposable fad by refusing to give the product to the customer.


In short:
the price isn't killing the brand
counterfeiters aren't killing the brand
exclusivity--what the brand prides itself on--is killing the brand.

and you can tell everybody that this is your song.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Fine, fine--we've been slacking. Mid-terms, papers--no excuses, play like a champion, right? So, well, we've opened the doors on Saturday. Maybe it's a music post, maybe it's a political post--let's just roll with it.

I actually skipped the USC basketball season opener (which we're losing at the moment) to fill you all in--so, yeah. Right, then.
---

First up, Radiohead did a webcast last night (I feel extremely dirty for having a .rar on my desktop with the title "webcast", even if it is just Radiohead).

You can find youtube clips and the entire recap here..and believe me, it's more than worth it.

The standout track? That's relative of course--but to me, it has to be Radiohead's cover of New Order's "Ceremony".

For those of you who don't care about either band, it's like The Rolling Stones covering the Beatles (I guess that actually did happen), Jimi Hendrix covering Bob Dylan (alright, that happened as well) or Jay-Z covering Nas (fine, fine--"Dead Presidents").

Maybe it just seems really monumental to me--that is one of my favorite songs of all time and it was covered by my favorite band of all time, so I mean, it's really a win-win. That's the best way to imagine in--your favorite song of all time covered by your favorite band.




-----

And while we're at it, another video

The Microphones "The Glow Pt. 2"


Such an amazing song and a really amazing video. The guitars are absolutely insane, and the organs later on just fill the song out perfectly.

----

And, viewing schedules--11 PM EST tonight, you'll be inundated with possibilities. Stay in or go out? Party or take it easy? Whatever you do, make sure you're near a television--the University of Hawaii is going to be playing Fresno State on ESPN2.

I don't care what you're doing at 11 PM--just make sure you're watching. On the East Coast? Invite your friends over--it's cheaper than going out anyway--and make a night of it. Out West? Perfect--watch it before heading out. In Hawaii? You'd just better be at the game--there's no reason that this team shouldn't be selling out every home game.

It's actually my first time seeing this team as well, though you'd think otherwise, judging on how much I build them up.

----
And, a really great song. Elton John's "Your Song"



The "if I was a sculptor/heh/but then again, no" is so great. Haha. I don't know why I'm listening to Elton John, really--am I growing up? Getting out of touch? All I know is 17 year-old Josh would have punched Elton John listening Josh. Haha. It's a bit sad to think that I may be listening to Elton John while driving to work one day--alas, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be.
---

And this is sort of surreal--Prefuse 73 featuring Aesop Rock and MF Doom's "Black List". I wanted to share the song, and i didn't expect to find a video.

However, there is the song running over what seems to be an Arctic expedition (is that Anthony Bourdain?). It's strange...and strangely captivating.


----

I think I'm going to head out to catch "American Gangster"--and I'm not going to lie, I mostly want to see it because I love the soundtrack. Jay-Z raps over the entire thing, and it is mostly a Diddy produced affair. Somehow, it works--it's very '70s soul based and influenced, and is a really good "I'm going to go out in the cold and just be a bad ass" feel to it.

Jay-Z "Roc Boys"





Enjoy the rest of your Saturday.

(And go to Panda Express and get some orange chicken. Seriously. I just want them to hook me up to an IV of that stuff)

policemen getting lost.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

I'm going to finally, finally FINALLY admit that I'm at my wits end with President Bush.

Yeah, yeah.."how can you call yourself a liberal if you're just admitting to that now blah blah". Look: the fact of the matter is that el presidente bothered me for a long time, too, but I just couldn't join the critics on the bandwagon. That's one of my billions of flaws: I play devil's advocate way too much. Sure, I wouldn't have voted for him, but I just felt that it was too easy to dislike the guy and that too many people did...there must be something that everyone was getting wrong.

But really. It started in high school. I got sick of hearing kids talking about how stupid the President was, even if they had no idea why we got Veterans Day and Memorial Day off from school. I just hated seeing the "I hate Bush" tees from kids who couldn't really explain the Iraq War (well, can any of us?) and wore the shirts because their favorite punk bands did.

I remembered the first Gulf War. I remembered the talk of SCUDs and all of that fun stuff--and I remember hearing about Saddam using WMDs on the Kurds in the north. Did Saddam have to go? If he had WMDs, yes. I was sure of this. I was naive to think it was about anything but oil. I was also a high schooler.

As we all know, there were no WMDs. And yeah, Saddam was evil...but so are 72% of all world leaders...and we're not taking them out.

This has a point, I promise.

By now, you're more than aware of what's going on in Pakistan--President Pervez Musharraf declared a "state of emergency", and her more or less suspended the constitution and jailed lawyers who would potentially protest this "state of emergency".

And, you know--this is one of our biggest allies in the "War on Terror". I fell asleep at 4 AM last night, just watching MSNBC talking heads pundit over what was going on.

The short of it? Not to be blunt, but it's scary shit. Come on--suspended the constitution. Can you imagine that happening here in America? Yes, Hawaii was under Marshall Law for most of World War II, and I used to buy into the high school history teacher's excuses for this--to support the war time effort. Now, though...there is just no reason for it. Not at all. I cannot agree with the suspension of the rights that our forefathers bestowed upon.

It just astounds me that our biggest ally would pull this. Musharraf isn't a good man--he took over via a coup and promised to hold elections when the country stabilized. It's been seven years, yet here he is, trying to hold on to power as long as he can by jailing prospective dissidents.

And I went to sleep upset. That was it. Fine, Dubya is now calling for Musharraf to call off the "state of emergency", but it's too late. The facade that we care about global democracy is now just completely obliterated. I always told myself, that as a IR major, my responsibility was to look at the world fairly and according to international relations theory. I just can't anymore, though. Dubya and his crew are just so full of it. I'm sad that I bought it for so long. It's just impossible to believe anything this current administration has to say about anything.

Yet, here they are, still running the country. Magnificent.

Read about this man--AQ Khan--and tell me that you're not sickened that Pakistan is still a huge ally. It's just disgusting.

Sit by idly, America. Our freedoms are next. I realize this post hardly says anything new (really, though, Khan should sicken you), but I just can't buy this crap that they're feeding us . I've joined the crew. I think it's past the point of being "fair" and not taking "cheap shots" at this administration--our foreign and domestic politics are such a farce that it'd be comedic if it wasn't so incredibly real and depressing.

----

And here's the video of the day:

Common "I Used to Love H.E.R."



Fine, maybe the concept is really played out now (don't worry, it'll be clear at the end of the song if you didn't get hammered by it throughout), but the beat is so fresh that the song is just too hard to not like.

And have you heard his song "Go"? The lyrics just creep me out...man. Too much information, if you ask me.

s is for songs. s is for senorita.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

I'm at a reflective point in my life. Undoubtedly, I will have many, many more. But, while writing down all of these thoughts, I was presented by a problematic pop culture puzzle that I wanted to answer...which I will look at a little later in the post.

Ever since I started making playlists for Sarah, I titled every playlist I made s, even the playlists that I didn't make for her. They all were attached to numbers, as well, and i think i'm up to around s37 on my computer, or something. s1-s37. yeah.

This past week, I made a playlist. That's what I do in my free time, really--and yeah, John Cusack's character in High Fidelity more or less captures my essence (sadly).

This playlist was no different from the rest. It started with an s, though I attached no number to it. I have no idea why I gave it that name, and I don't care enough to try and figure it out. It'll probably be awhile before this changes, but whatever...I've since renamed most of the playlists, except for the ones that I did make for Sarah. Those keep the "snumber" formats. I mean, they're still a big part of my life and my feelings for her, and I'm not a revisionist. Who I am today is a culmination of the experiences that I've had, and Sarah is and always will be a huge part of my life.

Ok, enough. I'm not going to attach the playlist here, because I've more or less put up all of the songs in a certain format on the blog..well, ok, here are some vids that you may enjoy (Phoenix's "Too Young", Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour", The Carpenter's "(They Long to Be) Close To You", John Legend "Save Room"-this one reminds me of Timmy Thomas' "Why Can't We Live Toogether, and covered here by Sade,Pharrell's "Frontin", and Common and Kanye's "The Food").

I mean, I had no idea why I made it...it's really a combination of songs that I've loved for a long time and songs that I've just recently come to like. Songs that just felt comforting. Anyway.

-----
But, I don't want to talk about those songs or those playlists. I just want to discuss one.

Justin Timberlake's "Senorita"




Yeah man. Seriously. Before I talk about JT himself, (hold on, ladies), I'd just like to talk about the music of the song.

I've been thinking about this song hardcore for the last couple of days...for no particular reason other than the fact that I listened to his first record non-stop on my recent foray to Mexico...and this song stuck with me the most. As usual, the Neptunes killed it. This was in the midst of them absolutely tearing it up with futuristic "Neptunes" synths that burned up every dance floor on the planet...they totally flipped it, brought out a chill piano/bass/drum piece with horn stabs..and damn, that bridge is just way too sexy. I can't even deny that.

I always like to think that if I ever had any musical talent, I'd probably produce very similar to the Neptunes. Everything they do is something that I could see myself producing (as opposed to Diddy, Scott Storch, Kanye, J Dilla, Madlib, Timbaland, RJ..blah blah). Every song they put out amazes me, because it feels like they pulled the synth patches out of my own brain.

Of course, the lyrics can mean everything to everyone, so I won't present an overdone analysis on them. Really, what's the point?

Everything. Why do women love Justin Timberlake so much? It seems like every single woman on the planet does. My mom. My grandma. My sister. Every girl I ever met in high school or college, regardless of how into "pop" or "indie rock" they were.

This song capitalizes on the stereotypical pop lyric about seeing a pretty woman who's down and telling her she doesn't deserve that. Fine, fine, fine...it's been done a million times.

But not by someone like JT. Someone who is as old or young as we want him to be. He can dance--we all know that...he can sing (for sure)...and he can really do both at the same time. He plays the guitar and piano at his shows. He dresses well and pulls off college boy sweatpants as well as GQ suits.

I mean, in short, he really is everything to everyone. He's not REALLY a bad boy, but he has enough scruff and tattoos to convince you otherwise. Girls probably feel like, if they do accept Justin's offer to save them from their unhappy, loveless relationships and date him, they're making an acceptable compromise with their parents...he's a rebel, but within acceptable boundaries.

"I don't like his sideburns and his stubble!"
"But he's got a job!"
"And his tattoos!"
"You never see them when he's wearing his suit!"
"He slept with Britney Spears!"
"That was his first time, and he was in love!"

I mean, seriously. And then dude brings out that sing-along part, where the guys sing:
"It feels like something's heating up, can I leave with you"

and the girls sing:
"I don't know what I'm thinking of...me leaving with you"

and then he has the audacity to say "Gentlemen, good night. Ladies, good morning. And that's it"

He's right when he sings that "nobody does this anymore"...probably because no one can pull of both singing in a male and female voice. I mean, straight up: how have this kid and Kanye not hooked up on a track yet? They're both so acceptably and sexily cocky...yet we have yet to hear anything by the two of them in tandem (...and seriously, did you know Pharrelll is 34?).

It's unfortunate that a song of this sexitude will never be released again--it seems like the two have fallen out...and there wasn't one Pharrell track on "Futuresex/Lovesounds".

Sad, sad, sad. But really, JT doesn't really need anyone but himself. Pharrell, Timbaland...hell, dude could have a hit record with Yanni.

Why not a JT/Mika Nakashima/Radiohead record? Give it a thought, kids.


This post isn't about me being upset that JT gets all the ladies..he deserves it. It's just pure admiration. Dude has every woman on the planet in awe, from the children to the grannies. And, from every angle, this is an amazing song..you'd be flat out wrong if you denied it. It'd be hard to really buy the swagger of the song from any other artist, but JT pulls off just about everything.

This is one of his best pieces, and it is also one of the Neptunes' finest works, too.

off to the races.

(Joshua Masayoshi Huff)

Recently, USC's (don't worry, this isn't a rah rah post) quarterback Mark Sanchez has been wearing a mouthguard with the Mexican flag on it. Sorry, I'm having the hardest time finding a picture, but you can imagine what it looks like. Surprisingly, it's been pretty big news here in LA.

There seems to be two schools of thought--one commends Sanchez for wearing the flag (only mildly, though) and the other saying that he is American....and that we're all American.

Obviously, this is a very personal issue, and I think it's one I've wrestled for my entire life, for many reasons.

With a name like Huff and the looks that I have, one would have to look at me pretty hard to think I was anything but Caucasian. But, of course, the Masayoshi and the Hirashima eyes would probably give away the fact that, yes, I have Japanese blood in me.

So, the things I think about are am I white? Am I Asian? Am I American? Am I a Japanese-American?

Of course, it's sorted. What makes us anything? Does speaking the language make one a person race? What if they don't have that blood? Growing up, my friends were primarily Japanese-Americans. We go to Shinto church on New Years and eat Japanese food and have a Shinto shrine in our home. We take off our shoes at the door. I've taken Japanese classes since I was a child. Is all of this cancelled out because my family has been in America for so long?

The logistics that the professor makes about "Americans of Mexican descent" seems a bit off. I really don't think that this term and Mexican-Americans are any different. One just rolls off the tongue easier.

The thing about America is that we don't have a common culture--we are a nation of immigrants. We pride ourselves on being the cultural melting pot...so it's strange that now people are so vehemently calling for us to all just be Americans. Fine, maybe the differences and idiosyncies would make it logical to say that this is the reason we ARE Americans...because we are so different.

The fact of the matter is that I just can't accept that. So many nation states are falling apart because of ethnic feelings. Yugoslavia dissolved into six nations based on race, and after the Czechoslavakian people rebelled against the communist government during the Velvet Revolution, the state dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Belgium hasn't had a national government in months because of the disputes between the Walloons and the Flanders--and 60% want the country to dissolve into two nations.

With globalization, nation states are starting to mean less and less. Borders are being destroyed, and people are more mobile than ever before. Nation states mean less and less because everything is easier...and Sanchez is just showing that this sentiment is alive in the US.

So what am I? A fourth-generation Japanese-American. I am American, but my upbringing has as much to do with who I am as the imaginary lines that make up this country. Crossing the Mexico-US border, nothing changed. We drove from one side of the desert to the other side of the desert...and a fence broke up this stretch of desert. That's who I am supposed to be? That's what line makes me American before anything else? That line trumps what's in my heart and in my past?

Who we are is all about people and customs and culture, not about states that don't exist anywhere other than in our own minds. I am not simply Japanese, though, because my family's version of culture has evolved in an American way.

I am not Japanese. I am not American. I am Japanese-American. And I'm not going to apologize to anyone for that.