BACKGROUND NOTES FOR ANIME 101, WEEK 3, 1970-79

NAMES TO REMEMBER

Toei Animation                                                Gerry and Sylvia Anderson

Mushi Production                                                Go Nagai

Tezuka Production                                                Leiji Matsumoto

Eiichi Yamamoto                                                Noboru Ishiguro

Mahiro Maeda                                                Yoshinobu Nishizaki

Kunihiko Ikuhara                                                Yoshiyuki Tomino

Kihachiro Kawamoto                                    Masaki Osumi

Monkey Punch                                                Riyoko Ikeda

Shinichiro Watanabe                                    Tadao Nagahama

Masaaki Osumi                                                Osamu Dezaki

Yasuo Otsuka                                                Rintaro

Isao Takahata                                                Masahiko Minami

Hayao Miyazaki

Hiroshi Fujimoto

Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS)

Yoshio Kuroda

Zuiyo Enterprises

Nippon Animation

MAIN THEMES FOR THIS SESSION

Dominance of Toei and fracture/reforming of small studios

Technological change

Experimental anime and small studios

Animation for older audiences – Animerama, Sazae-san, Lupin III

Animation for children – as advertising/merchandising, World Masterpiece Theater

Sc-fi and robot anime – transforming toys, the influence of Go Nagai, the move towards more realistic robots as young viewers grow up

Anime for girls – the successors to Princess Knight

Largo de Kawamoto, el señor de las marionetas más expresivas y aterradoras que vi. “El Libro de los Muertos” es una historia de fantasmas, Budismo y reencarnaciones.
Hermosos paisajes, el expresionismo característico de sus obras y una poesía que sólo puede ser apreciada en su esplendor en el arte de origen nipon. Kawamoto da cátedra.

Más información:

http://www.100meterfilms.com/bookdead_story.html

http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/the-book-of-the-dead.shtml

http://www.asiateca.net/?p=337

Link 1
Link 2

Pass: Qrosawa

SUNDAY
Jazz Night @ Levitt Pavilion, Memorial Park, Pasadena
7 p.m.
RAW Sugar Quintent

TUESDAY
Free Hula Class
7 p.m.
North Catalina Rec Room

WEDNESDAY
Children’s Entertainment Night @ Levitt Pavilion, Memorial Park – Pasadena
7:00 PM
From 1984 to 1998, Mammoth Follies was performed for audiences all over the country, including the BAM Opera House. After a 7-year absence, the dinosaurs will once again storm the stage in a completely renovated production of this wildly popular and thoroughly educational production.

Enormous puppets populate the stage, including your host Willie Mammoth, Smiley the Saber-Toothed Tiger, Bessie the 27-foot long Apatosaurus, Tony and Trixie Triceratops, Terry the Pterodactyl, and the 11-foot tall T. Rex in a musical trip through pre-history.

THURSDAY
American Music Night @ Levitt Pavilion, Memorial Park – Pasadena
6:30 p.m.
Some people think the blues is a down thing. But to quote Willie Dixon again, “All blues are happy blues.” Willie would be happy to hear Jimbo Ross plays the blues, because when Jimbo plays, people listen. He’s the embodiment of the happy blues – even in the deepest and darkest of songs, he finds the shining silver lining in the dark clouds, the joy inside the blues.

Jimbo spent a lot of time playing guitar growing up, and it’s in his unprecedented translation of guitar style blues to the viola that he has found a sound entirely his own. A virtuoso violist who has long been in great demand as a studio musician for his uncanny chameleonic ability to adapt the viola to any musical genre, he’s played everything from blues to gospel, swing to salsa , Baroque to Bulgarian, be-bop to hip-hop, Turkish to techno, and everywhere in-between.

Pacific Asia Museum
8pm
Animated Triple Feature!
The Demon, Dojoji Temple, and The Book of the Dead
by Kihachiro Kawamoto
Introduction and discussion by animation critic Charles Solomon

The Demon
(1970, 8 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

Two brothers are setting traps in the mountains when suddenly a demon’s arm reaches out and grabs the younger brother!

The older brother severs the demon’s arm, to take home. When they look at the arm carefully, it somehow resembles their mother’s arm.

Dojoji Temple
(1976, 19 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

An elderly monk and his young acolyte stop at a lodge where the mistress of the house, a young widow, falls in love with the acolyte. When he lies to her, she is literally transformed by rage and relentless in her pursuit of revenge.

The Book of the Dead
(2005, 93 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

In this ravishing film of mystical beauty, master animator Kawamoto tells the story of a young noblewoman in 8th-century Japan who leaves her home to follow the apparition of an executed prince.

Free with admission; call 626.449.2742 ext. 31 to RSVP.

Tango Classes @ Caltech

Free Dancing in Burbank

FRIDAY

Caltech All-Night Milonga
Tango Workshop 8:00-9:30 pm – INTERMEDIATE: ~*~ PLANEOS & ENROSQUES ~*~
At historic Dabney Hall, with beautiful hardwood floors

Special Workshop: 8:00-9:30 pm – ADV BEGINNER to INTERMEDIATE LEVEL:
~*~ Planeos & Enrosques ~*~
Workshop Admission:
Caltech Students w/ID: $10
Caltech Affiliates & other full-time Students w/ID: $15
Regular: $20

Caltech All-Night Milonga: 10:00 pm – 3:00 am.

Tango Club hosts the only all-night milonga in the Los Angeles area one Friday each month. Experience our All-Night Milongas… and find yourself in a tango embrace from the wee hours of night until dawn, and enjoying sundaes early in the morning!

When: 3rd Friday, July 18, 10:00 pm – 3:00 am.
Where: At historic Dabney Hall, with beautiful hardwood floors.
Enter Dabney through the gardens on the North side of the building.

Milonga + Performance Admission:
Caltech Students w/ID: $3
Caltech Affiliates & other full-time Students w/ID: $8
Regular: $10

Plus: Nice spread of refreshments, with sundaes at 1 am.

World Rhythms Night @ Levitt Pavilion, Memorial Park – Pasadena
The emergence of Gor Mkhitarian reflects the very best of the burgeoning music scene now taking foot in the independent former Soviet Republic of Armenia. Widely known throughout Armenia as the lead guitarist for one of country’s best rock bands, Lav Eli, Mkhitarian launched his solo career in 2001 and has released five albums since.

Being nominated for a total of eleven industry music awards, he makes fresh and compelling music that successfully fuses traditional Armenian music with both rock and folk idioms. In his music, Mkhitarian makes a case for writing the next chapter in Armenia’s rich musical history by updating the sound and feel of the classic Armenian folk song.

In 2003 he moved to Los Angeles where drummer Andranik Harutyunyan, basist Varujan Hovakimyan, pianist Art Grigorian and guitarist Jay Dean joined the band. Stepping away from his previous acoustic-driven “signature”, with the new band he features remarkable musicianship and showcases a different approach to his songwriting. It’s Armenian music, as it has never been heard before.

Free Movies in Old Pas
EMERGING FILMMAKERS
Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.

8:30 PM
CLASSIC HEPBURN: CHARADE
One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Widow Audrey Hepburn finds herself thrust into adventure when her dead husband’s war buddies come after her, thinking she has money they stole together during the war. Cary Grant is the stranger who is as mysterious as he is attractive–and who Hepburn falls for as she runs for her life.

10:00 PM
HORROR FILM: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
Rooftop of Schoolhouse Garage , 33 E. Green Street
Director Tobe Hooper will introduce the screening.
One of the best American horror films from the 1970s and certainly one of the scariest movies ever made, it works so well because the unknown actors and real-life locations burn themselves into your memory, assuming a nightmarishly twisted reality that lingers long after you’ve seen the film. After hearing of a cemetery desecration, Marilyn Burns and friends go on a jaunt in the broiling Texas countryside to make sure her grandparents’ graves are okay, only to become stranded at the rural home of a family of inbred cannibals. Director Tobe Hooper expertly escalates the horror until you can’t stand it anymore…then goes one step further. With Gunnar Hansen, Ed Neal.

Paseo Colorado: Free Swing Dancing
Mora’s Modern Swingtet
6:30-9:30pm

SATURDAY

Caltech Tango Workshop

GUILLERMO & ENRIQUE DE FAZIO are internationally celebrated as the creators of an original style, full of speed, ability and humor.

Known as Los Hermanos Macana, Guillermo & Enrique made their professional debut in 1997, reproducing the old practicas among men.

2:30-4:00 pm – INTERMEDIATE: ~*~ MILONGA CON TRASPIE ~*~
4:15:-5:45 pm – INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCE: ~*~ MILONGA CON TRASPIE Beautiful Steps ~*~
At Winnett Lounge (2nd floor)

Musica Latina Night @ Levitt Pavilion, Memorial Park – Pasadena

Bronx born Bobby Matos began playing music beating on pots and pans in Grandma’s apartment and went on to backstage informal lessons with conga drum masters Patato Valdez and Mongo Santamaria.

He was inspired and encouraged to play timbales by Willie Bobo and Tito Puente, and in the late ˜60s attended the New School and Manhattan School of Music studying composition and arranging. Around this exciting time for Latin Music in N.Y., he recorded “My Latin Soul” for Philips Records. This recording eventually became a much prized cult classic influencing many ˜70’s and ˜80’s Acid Jazz groups on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bobby continues recording and releasing new music on the LifeForce Jazz imprint including “Acknowledgement” 2005, “Charanga Chango” 2006, and “Gratitude” 2007.

Free Movies in Old Pas
10:00 AM
FAMILY MATINEE: MARY POPPINS
Laemmle’s One Colorado Cinemas, 42 Miller Alley -
Julie Andrews is God’s gift to nanny-dom as Mary Poppins in this classic musical comedy/fantasy. When Poppins comes to work for the Banks family in their turn-of-the-20th-century London household, she uplifts everyone’s spirits and brings magic to their lives. Dick Van Dyke is Bert, the good-natured chimney sweep and the great Jane Darwell, in her last screen appearance, plays the bird lady. Winner of five Academy Awards, including Andrews for Best Actress and Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman for Best Original Song and Best Original Music Score.

7:00 PM
EMERGING FILMMAKERS
Armory Center for the Arts, 145 N. Raymond
Films and shorts by students and faculty from the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Center College of Design and Pasadena City College.

7:00 PM
IF IT’S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE BELGIUM
Distant Lands, 54 S. Raymond Ave.,
A group of travelers from the United States race through seven countries in 18 days in this hilarious romantic comedy. Nominated for a Golden Globe for best screenplay and directed by Mel Stuart the 1969 film also features a cameo by the folk singer Donovan who wrote the title song.

8:30 PM
CLASSIC HEPBURN: SABRINA
One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley
Chauffeur’s daughter Audrey Hepburn blooms from ugly duckling to fashion queen as she tries to choose between wealthy, middle-aged Humphrey Bogart (at his sexy, smokey best) and cocky lover-boy William Holden (a Wilder favorite). Billy Wilder’s classic romantic triangle.

10:00 PM
MENTAL HYGIENE SHORT FILMS
Mercantile Alley (right behind Coffee Bean at 18 S. Fair Oaks)
Presented by Archivist and Historian Rick Prelinger.
For the quarter-century following World War II, a special kind of classroom film received wide circulation. These “mental hygiene” films thrived in a confused and nervous America. The rebellious behavior of young people challenging the social norms struck fear into the hearts of parents and educators, who saw dark futures for the teens who broke the rules and refused to fit in with society. These concerned adults embraced the metal hygiene film as a new means of delivering social guidance. The creators of the films took their cues from the wildly successful training and propaganda films of the World War II era. They used the same shock and scare techniques to warn teenagers about substance abuse, venereal disease, juvenile delinquency and the awful fate of kids who drive too fast on prom night.

Interested in Asia and movies? Do you love being under the stars of a summer night? Thursday nights at the Pacific Asia Museum will introduce you to the familiar, and local and the strange in this summer film series that includes Lilo and Stitch, a 1929 silent movie and anime.

It isn’t free. The cost is $5 for members, $12 for non-members. Or, buy the entire series and save ($25 members/ $65 non-members). Pacific Asia Museum, 46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Call (626) 449-2742 ext. 31 to register.

July 17, 8 p.m.
Animated Triple Feature!
The Demon, Dojoji Temple, and The Book of the Dead
by Kihachiro Kawamoto
Introduction and discussion by animation critic Charles Solomon

The Demon
(1970, 8 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

Two brothers are setting traps in the mountains when suddenly a demon’s arm reaches out and grabs the younger brother!

The older brother severs the demon’s arm, to take home. When they look at the arm carefully, it somehow resembles their mother’s arm.

Dojoji Temple
(1976, 19 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

An elderly monk and his young acolyte stop at a lodge where the mistress of the house, a young widow, falls in love with the acolyte. When he lies to her, she is literally transformed by rage and relentless in her pursuit of revenge.

The Book of the Dead
(2005, 93 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

In this ravishing film of mystical beauty, master animator Kawamoto tells the story of a young noblewoman in 8th-century Japan who leaves her home to follow the apparition of an executed prince.

July 24, 8pm
Ugetsu Monogatari by Kenji Mizoguchi
Introduction and discussion by American Cinematheque’s Chris D.

(1954, 94 min., Japanese with English subtitles)

In the civil wars of 16th century Japan, two ambitious peasants want to make their fortunes. Their village is sacked by the marauding armies, and they and their wives head for the city. However, Genjuro soon sends his wife back, promising to return, and Tobei abandons his wife. Meanwhile, a wealthy noblewoman, the Lady Wakasa, shows an interest in Genjuro and invites him to her mansion.

August 7, 8 p.m.
Young, Gifted & Samoan
Introduction and discussion by filmmaker Dionne Fonoti

(2008, 23 min.)

While earning her master’s degree in visual anthropology, Fonoti was challenged to create an ethnographic film. Inspired by concepts of cultural identity and place, she explores the lives of Samoan youth, born and raised in San Francisco.

The film is followed by a tour of the exhibition Pacifika: Young Perspectives on Pacific Island Art

August 21, 8 p.m.
Hawaii by George Roy Hill
Introduction and discussion by 89.3 KPCC’s Off-Ramp host John Rabe

(1966, 189 min.)

Abner Hale, a rigid and humorless New England missionary, marries the beautiful Jerusha Bromley and takes her to the exotic island kingdom of Hawaii, intent on converting the natives. But the clash between the two cultures is too great and instead of understanding there comes tragedy.

September 11, 8 p.m.
Hollywood Chinese
Introduction by Director Arthur Dong

(2008, not rated, 90 min.)

‘What’s amazing about Arthur Dong’s ‘Hollywood Chinese,’ a chronicle of Chinese Americans in Hollywood beginning in the silent era and culminating in today’s success stories, is how much fun it is. Loaded with film clips, celebrity interviews and without an ax to grind, it’s a film not just for Chinese Americans but for film lovers in general.’
-C. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicler

September 25, 8 p.m.
Red Heroine
With a Live Concert by Devil Music Ensemble

(1929, 94 min., silent)

Episode six of RED KNIGHT-ERRANT a.k.a. RED HEROINE, the only surviving episode of the 13-part Chinese serial, is one of the few complete and earliest extant silent martial arts films. A band of outlaws raids a village and kidnaps a maiden, causing the death of her grandmother. The captive maiden is rescued by a mysterious Daoist hermit and reemerges three years later as a full-fledged warrior, flying to the sky to revenge her grandmother’s death.

Critically acclaimed Devil Music Ensemble will bring this classic silent film to new life with a live performance of their all-new score.

Devil Music Ensemble is Brendon Wood Jonah Rapino and Tim Nylander.

Since 2002 Devil Music Ensemble (DME) has striven to present new, original, diverse works with performances in Boston, the rest of the U.S., and now the world. Presenting live soundtrack performances to ‘Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde’ on their first European tour, their experimentation with silent film and music has grown to include classics such as ‘Nosferatu,’ ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ the western ‘Big Stakes’ and now ‘Red Heroine.’ The attempt to pigeonhole Devil Music’s sound has been frustrating audiences and critics since its incarnation, and will continue as such as long as the love of experimentation stays with the group.

Make an evening of it! Come early and visit the galleries. Bring your own picnic and enjoy dinner in the courtyard garden. Or, you can purchase refreshments at the concessions stand.

All galleries open until programs start. All programs begin at 8pm.

Programs are subject to change.

[Actualización del 16 de julio: muchas gracias a todos los que han dejado sus propuestas hasta el momento. Pronto, más noticias sobre el proyecto... Y si tienen todavía un verso favorito que sugerir, aún es tiempo. Saludos... y estén pendientes del cuento del día 20.]

Un mensaje para todos los lectores de esta(s) bitácora(s): solicito su ayuda.

Para un proyecto literario del que por el momento no puedo decir mucho (pero es gordo, interesante, y se revelará cuando esté listo) necesito versos: versos sueltos de poemas. Pueden ser de cualquier época, de cualquier lugar y tradición, de poetas consagrados o desconocidos; pueden ser frases completas o bien partes de una frase mayor que abarque varios versos. Lo importante es que sean del interés de ustedes, ya sea por bellos o por desconcertantes.

Si les interesa la poesía, si tienen algún poema favorito, si de pronto se encontraron con uno por casualidad en un libro o en la red y un solo verso les llamó la atención (si dijeron: “Éste es el verso, éste”), en todos estos casos agradeceré que dejen dicho verso en los comentarios de esta nota, incluyendo además el título del poema del que procede, su autor y (de preferencia) el lugar (libro, revista, sitio web) en el que el poema apareció.

He aquí algunos ejemplos:

voy por tu cuerpo como por el mundo
Octavio Paz, Piedra de sol

De tener tiempo y mundo suficientes
Andrew Marvell, “A su esquiva amada”

no más las dulces metamorfosis de una niña de seda
Alejandra Pizarnik, poema 12 de El árbol de Diana

durante la sospecha de la gran visita, mientras las costras sagradas se desprenden
José Carlos Becerra, “Batman” (de El otoño recorre las islas)

y abandonar mi mano sobre tu hombro izquierdo, y nada más
Marina Tsvietáieva, “A Rainer Maria Rilke”. Publicado en http://amediavoz.com/tsvetaieva.htm

Sólo hay dos restricciones: no puedo usar versos originales ni material sin atribución (debe tratarse de textos que pueda citar en un contexto ajeno a ellos de manera legal y justa), y tampoco puedo usar letras de canciones, himnos y otros por el estilo.

Quienes me sugieran versos que pueda utilizar verán sus nombres en los agradecimientos del proyecto, y estarán invitados a la fiesta inaugural cuando llegue el momento.

Por último, les estaría muy agradecido si pudieran poner enlaces a esta convocatoria desde sus propios blogs o bien hacerla llegar a quien pudiera estar interesado. Es más: les agradezco desde ya.

Y ahora, para fines de simple entretenimiento, dejo un cortometraje animado en dos partes: La casa de fuego (1979), del cineasta japonés Kihachiro Kawamoto, cortesía de The Motion Brigades. (Viene en japonés subtitulado en inglés.)

Buenos días y saludos a todos.

Parte 1

Parte 2

Kihachiro Kawamoto is an animator who I just discovered last night when I watched two films from the above mentioned collection. They lived up to the billing. The first one, “Breaking of Branches is Forbidden”, 1968, 14 minutes, was just wonderful puppetry combined with stop action. Beware the dangers of drinking seems to be the moral of this story. The second example, “Anthropo-Cynical Farce” (Farce anthropo-cynique, 1970, 8 min., from a story by Riichi Yokomitsu), was a beautifully done stop action work, I didn’t quite get it but it seemed an attack materialism, maybe. If you like animation get this man’s work.

His list of works is here
Interview
Book of the Dead website.

Example of work: House of Flame

Part 1

Part 2