This is a video clip of Britney-Sensei, a homeless gyaru teacher of manga:
This is the video of There Is a Light that Never Goes Out by The Smiths:
These are the characters for 'bunmei' in Japanese or 'wenming' in Chinese:
Join the dots.
PS. If you turn the sound down on the Britney-Sensei clip and start There Is a Light that Never Goes Out playing at about 25 seconds in, the effect is quite interesting.
Anonymous writes:Would it be necessary to understand Japanese to read any of the text on the screen (or to have any particular insight into Japanese culture) in the first video to understand what you mean? It is interesting and I’m glad to have experienced it (indeed, please do more of this type of posting, if the conditions present themselves) but it would sound silly for me to put into words what I think I understand by ‘civilization’. A sincere ‘thank you’ from me anyway, though I believe my interpretation lacking somewhat or failing to grasp completely what you are going for in this mental excercise.
Well, it does help. Basically, the television crew are surprised (or pretending to be surprised?) to learn that Hamada Britney is homeless. She tells them a little bit about her life, and how it’s not bad being homeless, and then she shows them her job – as a manga teacher.One nice little coincidence with the timing that I mentioned is that when Morrissey sings, “Because it isn’t my home, it’s their home, and I’m welcome no more”, Britney-Sensei is saying (with subtitles, because they always have subtitles on Japanese TV) that her “kyariba” (that case/bag thing) is “maihoomu”, or, “my home”.I think what I was going for was… er… not to be wanky or anything, but it was just something I felt like doing for my own sake…phone..back later…
I don’t know Twin Shadow. I’ll check them out. My favourite Smiths album is the first one. My favourite Moz album is probably… Vauxhall and I, predictably, but I think a lot of his so-called ‘comeback’ material is also pretty good. The best song on Southpaw Grammar, I think, and one of the best of his career, is ‘Southpaw’. I also like ‘Best Friend on the Payroll’. No one but Morrissey could make something so strangely epic about something so mundanely bitchy:Also great on that album is ‘The Operation’, and the first track. I think the lyrics tend to outshine the music elsewhere on the album, but still, better than the best of some.
tHe gHoSt AbOvE writes:Unrelated to this video…have you happened to have heard a song by Twin Shadow called “slow”? I would like to know what you think of it, if you happen to hear it. I have been listening to The Smiths / Morrissey for a long while. Not that it matters really but I am rather partial to the versions of the songs on “Hatful of Hollow” by The Smiths. By Morrissey my favorites are “Your Arsenal” and…and I’m in the minority on this one, I realize…”Southpaw Grammar”.
i followed instructions. i just have one long question. she works, she’s clean, she’s talented and she’s kind and pretty looking and she’s homeless? i thought japan would treat artists more generously as national treasures. harruummphhh.
Originally posted by anonymous:though I believe my interpretation lacking somewhat or failing to grasp completely what you are going for in this mental excercise. I never fully addressed this. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I can really explain. I suppose I don’t want to lose a sense of possibility and vitality while I live. On the one hand, this can be lost be being invested in things that inevitably end, or are limited. On the other… or perhaps it’s the same hand… somewhere in The Sickness Unto Death, I believe, Kierkergaard talks about how easy it is to lose your true self – the worst fate that can happen – and nobody notices. There Is a Light that Never Goes Out seems like a sad song in a way, but it’s also about possibility. “Take me anywhere, I don’t care…” Someone has lost their home, but they are reminded by this of the self that Kierkergaard mentions, that light that never goes out, though many people lose touch with it.In touch with this light, he doesn’t care if he dies, even. It’s framed in a semi-suicidal way, but it actually seems a very positive song to me.I hope that helps or is of interest…
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:i followed instructions. i just have one long question. she works, she’s clean, she’s talented and she’s kind and pretty looking and she’s homeless? i thought japan would treat artists more generously as national treasures. harruummphhh.She does seem quite cheerful about being homeless, and I don’t know much about her, but it is possible that there was some choice involved. Japanese people I’ve spoken to seem to believe that homeless people choose to be homeless. I realise that this belief is not uncommon in the West, either, and the fact that it is common is no indication of its accuracy, but it seems particularly prevalent in Japan. I seem to recall someone in Japan once telling me that there was something of a tradition of dropping out by becoming homeless in Japan. Kamo no Chomei is sometimes cited in this connection, and apparently he really did choose to become homeless (many centuries ago) and considered it the best decision he’d ever made.Nonetheless, it would not surprise me in the least if her homelessness was not entirely chosen and she was simply putting a brave face on things.I was on the train earlier today and took the opportunity to read a little of a story by Oliver Onions. It’s his most famous story, it seems – ‘The Beckoning Fair One’. What astonished me was simply how accurate – that is, how entirely relevant in all details – was his depiction of the life of a struggling writer. The story was in his first collection, Widdershins, which came out in 1911, though the story itself may have been written earlier. In any case, divided from the time of the story by one hundred years, apart from some slight change of interior decor, it seemed to me that the story could have been written about my own life, if I may be forgiven for saying such. Perhaps the only difference is that the story’s hero, Paul Oleron, for some reason seems to consider the pursuit of his writing is altruistic. It is very difficult for me to feel the same on that particular point.
Originally posted by quentinscrisp:Kamo no Chomei is sometimes cited in this connection, and apparently he really did choose to become homeless (many centuries ago) and considered it the best decision he’d ever made.that’s very interesting.i have met some homeless people who feel that they choose to be that way. but i’m sure in japan it’s a different attitude. my people just are sick of government red tape and prefer to just fend for themselves.
Originally posted by quentinscrisp:It is very difficult for me to feel the same on that particular point.me too.
Justin Isis writes:The combination of these two videos is kind of how I feel inside all the time
Anonymous writes:perhaps the word “useful” could be read instead as “poetic” in the above comment. Useful in conveying something idiosyncratic which could not be properly/totally/satisfactorily conveyed simply by words alone but it would seem is actually possible to get across by less obvious means. Poetry it seems, does this through the use of imagery/juxtaposition not pertinent in a literal sense to what is being evoked within it.
The First 3 “Anonymouses” writes:Quentin, your last two posts in response confirm to me that I actually “got it” if that’s the right thing to say or, at least, in any case, caught the feeling behind the interconnection of the three items. This is a useful way of saying something…taken together the three almost act as a sort of ideogram.
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:i have met some homeless people who feel that they choose to be that way. but i’m sure in japan it’s a different attitude.There’s not so much begging among the homeless in Japan. I don’t really know what they do to eat.Originally posted by anonymous:The combination of these two videos is kind of how I feel inside all the timeI’m trying to think if I have a similar combination. Maybe A Thousand Hours by The Cure combined with this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT_li-WHcIIOriginally posted by anonymous:Quentin, your last two posts in response confirm to me that I actually “got it” if that’s the right thing to say or, at least, in any case, caught the feeling behind the interconnection of the three items.Ah, good. I’m glad that I’m not incoherent all the time.
Mark S.
AnonK writes:This thread is a little old to be commented, but since I just had read now…I just felt like doing an observation about the translation about the “sensei” word. I think translating it as “teacher” is not really too much accurate, since she isn’t “teaching” anyone. If I’m not wrong they used “sensei” to her as a “treatment pronoun”, as to say, since they used it to direct to doctors, writers and mangaka as well, that is her case.
It’s true that it doesn’t literally mean ‘teacher’, but is simply an honorific form of address applied to teachers and to other people one is supposed to look up to. But I think that Britney might actually teach something. Will have to re-watch the clip.