I have always been a fan of Japan. I have been there four times, including on my honeymoon. I even had the pleasure of living for a year in Kyoto working at Kyoto University. It is, in many ways, a wonderful place and I do hope to go back when time and money permit. I even am teaching my son what little Japanese language I still remember.

But there are always strange undercurrents in Japan. Korean and Chinese friends of mine cannot understand why I ever would visit Japan. They have an anger towards Japan that Americans have a hard time understanding. The presence of the yakuza (Japanese mafia) in Japan is omnipresent, once you are aware of it, which seems strange for an otherwise so law abiding nation. When World War II comes up in conversation, many Japanese still think Japan was justified in its imperialism and that America should apologize for the nuclear bombings and for the occupation. It is a constant source of scandal that Japanese leaders frequently downplay and misrepresent Japanese imperialism in Asia. I was amazed at how unresolved WW II seems in Japan and in Asia.  read more »

Suze Rotolo, the girl depicted with him on the cover of Bob Dylan’s first album, has, 45 years later written her memories of their life together and of the early 60’s NYC folk scene. Although it has a publication date of May 13, it has been widely circulated (See for example, this post and this LA Times review and this Gawker Gawk .) The New York Times review is here with an excerpt here ; National Public Radio here. For Dylan fans or those with an unceasing yen for nostalgia, try these Dylan-Rotolo photos. It’s a good book about that time & place. I was there some (see last graph, below) and think her report catches well much of the flavor of the time. (Unlike, for example, “Positively 4th Street,” a book I found way too snarky.)

One of the great harms to Ms. Rotolo, I guess, of having been close to Dylan, is that he sucks the oxygen out of the room.  read more »

A book arrived in the mail, sent by Public Affairs, one of the publishers that Culture Kitchen and Daily Gotham has dealt with before. Based on what I had done with them in the past, they wanted me to reveiw the book. At the time I was excessively busy and had little intention of getting around to it. But, just to be fair, and since I didn't have another book going at that moment, I picked it up for my subway ride to work. Well, I have to admit that it was inevitable that it would grab me. So here I am reviewing it.  read more »

The Albany Project is offering something I'd like to direct your attention to:

[N]ext Wednesday the TAP Book Club will meet again right here on the internets at 7pm. Our guest will be Mr Frameshop himself, Jeffrey Feldman. Jeffrey will join us to discuss his fantastic new book, Framing the Debate: Famous Presidential Speeches and How Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (and Win Elections). I hope we can really get to the heart of what Jeffrey is trying to say in his book about building our own progressive frames whilst ignoring the frames of the right, though I'm sure there will be at least some discussion about what it feels like to be "Fairbanksed".

I know it's short notice and all, but Jeffrey's book is widely available now and I read it in one sitting on a flight to LA a couple of weeks back. I so hope tht you'll join us for the discussion of this great piece of work and the ideas therein.

Framing is the critical skill for Progressives. Feldman has literally written the book on it. I haven't read it myself, yet - perhaps the publisher could send over a copy? - but if you've followed his work on the Kos, you'll love it, I'm sure.  read more »

I was surprisingly inspired by John and Teresa Heinz Kerry’s new book, This Moment on Earth, coming out March 26th, 2007. This inspiration snuck up on me around the third chapter. Prior to that, I found the book good, well worth reading, but a little bit like just one more book outlining what humans are doing wrong. Starting around the third chapter I realized I was referring to the book in several conversations and several blog diaries and that several of the people and organizations featured in the book I mentally filed away as worth looking into for future political connections, diaries and general research.

In short, almost without my realizing it, John Kerry’s book was getting into my brain and inspiring me. The book starts a bit dull but by the end is excellent.

My earliest impression, from the press material that arrived with the book and from the introduction, was that this book promised something really new and welcome. The book was billed as the next step in the evolution of the environmental debate. I was ready for a book that took as given the problems and focused primarily on solutions. Having been through way too many “debates” online where I yet again outlined the very clear scientific evidence for global warming only to have yet the same false claims that global warming was some kind of scam or myth (these claims are never backed up by scientific evidence of any substance), I really was ready to have a book that moved beyond that.  read more »