Naoko's Funeral

I finished re-reading Norwegian Wood today and had an idea to make a playlist on YouTube out of solo guitar covers that would match as closely as possible the scene Haruki Murakami describes at the end of the book.

Details of necessary liberties taken (and also a request for a solo—preferably acoustic—cover of Wedding Bell Blues by Laura Nyro) are in the description of the list! (Also notice that I started faving all the videos I put here on the murakarumappu channel, so you can just go there if you want a quick inundation without boring blog posts.

"Now listen to me, Watanabe. I want you to forget all about that sad littel funeral you saw. Just remember this marvelous one of ours."

Esso

I wasn't sure at first whether I was going to bother talking about Esso (Standard Oil -- Exxon, etc.) But then he mentioned a tiger mascot and my curiosity flared up. Not that you can't do your own Google Image search, but:





Honestly, I think he is a little bit too grinny for my tastes.

They also did TV commercials with a real one (Is this Tessa?)

Toyota Crown Royal Saloon

The type of car the taxi is in the beginning of IQ84.

Maybe people who know about cards have a better idea how this works, but I have no clue. Definitely not a car person—in fact, I don't even have a license. But basically, the Royal Saloon is part of a broader Crown line that goes all the way back to the '50s. This picture (which I grabbed via Google from Free Notes) may or may not have anything to do with the car in the book, as there seem to be many colors and of course, the style changed a lot over the years. I did read on Wikipedia about some "sound-deadening" material they used for some of the recent models, so...yeah...

Sorry, I can't say I have any interest in cars. But now we know that it might look SOMETHING like the one pictured on the right. Maybe :P

UPDATE: Actually the book takes place in 1984, apparently, or at least the opening scene, so the one in the picture is too new.

Janacek's Sinfonietta

I'm reading this one in Japanese, so I don't know if the quote will help much, but basically he just talks a bit about this song and composer on the very first page of 1Q84.

Red Star Over China

Slow Boat to a blog post is more like it! I think the library probably feels that I have stolen this book, and they may be right at this point. Or at least I might as well have bought a copy for the amount I no doubt now owe in late fees. How embarrassing.

Let's just say that although this book ("I've read dozens of books on China, everything from the Annals to Red Star over China," if you recall, is the reference we're working from, here) has some really interesting anecdotes and quotes, it ends up being pretty difficult unless you understand something of Chinese history already. Unfortunately I really don't, so I think lots of the good info was sort of lost on me, although I did enjoy reading Edgar Snow's travelogue type segments. His personal experiences with different people he met along the way were more interesting than most of the battle stats, for me.

Probably I would've gotten more out of it, too, if I hadn't gone and gotten so distracted. There is no reason this book should have taken me nearly four months to read. I think I'm going to take a break, pay off my library loan and hope they forget how awful I was before I try to special order The Annals of Lu Buwei. I wish I COULD just buy a copy of this one, but it is a hundred dollars on Amazon. Not going to happen, sorry.

Anyways, you'd think I would have more to say about Red Star Over China. Chinese communism is certainly a compelling enough subject, but like I sort of already said, this is not an introductory text. I would recommend reading it, sure, but AFTER you have a crash course in the history involved.

SNAP, KIDS: Happy Twitter Follow Button Day! (+ Progress Update)

Check out my official Twitter button (above). No more boring hyperlink —we gots the real deal. If you aren't following, WHY AREN'T YOU FOLLOWING? It's clear that is where all the action is for the time being.

"I've read dozens of books on China, everything from the Annals to Red Star over China."

Some references you can just Google and find, but other things require serious effort. I actually had to renew the library book!! Now, that means I'm just not reading fast enough, but I AM making progress. I can't promise I will have anything profound to say when it's over (this is Red Star Over China I'm talking about) but I can already tell you it's a pretty interesting read.

The issues I have with it are excessive pointing to biographical notes; I would much rather have a tiny summary in-line. In fact, I actually gave up on the biographical notes. My mind isn't really piecing it together and I won't remember all the names, anyhow. You can follow the main trajectory, though, and reallllly important names tend to stick because you see them a few times. Then if you're interested you can look them up in the bio notes on your own. That is the way I'm doing it.

The other book I found out that I will have to order special through a greater inter-library network, and that will have to be read in a much more serious manner because I can't just renew it forever...

Cinderella

"'Oh, you mean like Cinderella? Don't worry, I won't forget.'"

Image via The Christmas Teddy

They're making a joke about forgetting her "slipper" since she has a tight curfew.

Cinderella is a pretty standard tale, although there are lots of versions and variations. According to IMDB, the Disney movie came out in 1952 in Japan, so it could be that the characters in "A Slow Boat to China" had even seen the movie.

Did you know there is a character known as the Japanese Cinderella?