Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
“Stories of upper-class Chinese women flying to the United States in style and staying at private clinics to have their babies to take advantage of citizenship laws soon began to appear in the news cycle.” Anchor babies. It’s a term that was not very common up until the very heated debates of the last few years on American immigration reform. And as the article at the link correctly sums up, in the minds of most Americans the term anchor baby is most commonly associated with illegal, impoverished Latino immigrants and their often dire need for social services from the state. But apparently, anchor babies have become a way for affluent parents from mainland China to establish American citizenship for their new children, often as a way to circumvent China’s “One Child” policy or give their kids access to better education and lifestyle opportunities. And these parents are doing everything by the book, applying for the proper visas and paying the required fees, in order to secure legal U.S. citizenship for these kids. Problem is, due to China’s current policy on dual-citzenship (it isn’t allowed), these fully Chinese anchor babies may have serious problems leading lives split between their parents’ homeland and their own. (NBC News Behind the Wall – Affluent Chinese Anchor Babies)
Continue reading
“The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) announced on Friday that it published an English-language ‘Japan Anime Map’ that highlights the locales in the country with ties to anime.” Today, you can have a souvenir of Japan without leaving the comfort of your workspace or leisurely environs. The JNTO, which promotes tourism on behalf of the Japanese government, has created and made available for download a really cool map which lists real-life locations of famous fictional anime action, as well as where to find some of the famous hot spots of otaku culture throughout the country. So, if you’ve been dying to find out where “Summer Wars” takes place, or are planning a tip to Nakano Broadway or Miyazaki’s Ghibli Museum, you really should get yourself a copy of this map. (Anime News Network – Japan Anime Map) The best way to get a hard copy of the anime map, and other useful Japan tourism info, is probably to contact the JNTO office nearest to you. Here’s how: JNTO Regional Offices.
Continue reading
This is how invite cards should be, if you’re Takashi Murakami.
Continue reading
Amateur Japanese Radiation Detectives “If TEPCO was operating this facility in the U.S., all of the reactors would have been shut down indefinitely and there would have been a complete changeover of management.” The gist of this is that people are not very happy with the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Citizens affected by the nuclear disaster in Japan view the company’s response to the crisis as slow and somewhat sloppy. According to the report at the link, for a time after the disaster TEPCO was using fire hoses and temporary water pumping equipment to attempt to cool the reactors at Fukushima. So, out of safety concerns and a sense of duty to help, some regular folks in the Fukushima and Minami Soma areas are borrowing Geiger counters and monitoring radiation levels themselves. They are not licensed specialists, and they have no formal training in radiation risk management. But one former garbage-sorting worker and one elementary school principal, amongst others, have decided the best way to assess the ongoing risks of Fukushima radiation is to do it themselves and use their common sense to get the safely through the threat. (Bloomberg-Business Week – Geiger Counter Gumshoes) Yakuza Disaster Relief is So Efficient, it’s Just Criminal “Those lining up to profit from the clearance operation, which is expected to take three years, include homegrown gangs and Chinese crime syndicates.” For some reason, this story reminds us of the Paul Sorvino mafia character in the movie “The Rocketeer”, who takes sides with the good guys against the evil Nazi played by Timothy Dalton. Sure, that was only a movie; but the point is that bad people are capable of doing good things when their country or way of life faces a threat, whether the threat comes from humans or nature. And so it seems to be with Japan’s Yakuza, which has been credited with very quickly and efficiently offering supplies and shelter to March 11th disaster survivors, in some cases days before government agencies were able to do the same. But in the wake of that generous initial response, the Yakuza are now seen as a possible problem where the bidding for post-disaster debris removal and reconstruction contracts are concerned. Police and government officials are worried that Yakuza-affiliated companies will win these lucrative contracts by sharply under-bidding legitimate civilian firms, perhaps with the help of local government officials, and end up exporting disaster debris outside of Japan for sale on the global black market. (The Guardina UK – Yakuza Disaster Contracts)
Continue reading
Following the sudden exit of singer Dean Wareham from “slowcore” pioneers Galaxie 500 in 1991, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang went on to craft their own genre of sad and smart psychedelic folk. Going into their second decade as a duo, Damon and Naomi have released False Beats & True Hearts, the eighth and (somewhat) happiest album yet. Contributions come from many familiar names, including avant sax player and arranger Bhob Rainey, Ghost and Boris guitar god Michio Kurihara, and Ghost’s main man Masaki Buto, and the accompanying tour featured guest musicians in every city. I had the pleasure of spending some time with my old friends before and after their L.A. stop at The Satellite with Amor de Dias, and couldn’t let Naomi go without a quick Q&A. MW: The new album is great! Now that reviews are pouring in, do you feel like listeners hear it the same way you did when you recorded it? NY: What has been very gratifying is that the reviewers do really seem to have heard what we were trying to do. This time we were consciously trying to write a more upbeat album than the last one and the response has been really positive; we can’t complain that we are misunderstood! MW: Although you are a duo by definition, you’re always playing with friends. Some regulars (Kuri, Bhob…) and a few less frequent (Alasdair, Smokey…). Can you talk about the always-changing dynamics? NY: We love a good collaboration. Working with Kuri and Bhob over a long period of time has allowed us all to grow into the music together and so playing with them feels very natural, but this last tour, due to the fact that Kuri couldn’t play with us in the U.S., we had the opportunity to have more spontaneous collaborations. We were excited about all the players: Alasdair MacLean (Amor de Dias, The Clientele), Mac McCaughan (Superchunk, Portastatic), Wayne Rogers (Major Stars, Magic Hour), Smokey Hormel (Johnny Cash, Beck, Tom Waits…), and Chris Martin (Kinski) along the way. Mary Lattimore (Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore) also sat in with us one night on harp. It’s a very different experience but also really fun to hear everyone’s interpretations of the songs. MW: You’re not known for playing covers, but… Every time I hear “It Changes” or “Lila’s Theme,” I can’t help think of D&N. Not sure why. What do you think? NY: Wow, those songs are super-sad… I think a lot of our music is very emotional, and the loss/the passage of time is often in the lyrics, either explicitly or indirectly. Those aren’t the typical subject for pop songs but it is something that we find in a lot of music that listen to that moves us, and song seems like a very good way to express these sort of emotions… But actually, we have always played a lot of covers, going even back to the olden days of Galaxie 500. It has always been a way for us to...
Continue reading