Pirate Rock

Originally released under the title The Boat That Rocked a couple of years ago in UK, and a bit longer, I heard, but recently significantly edited for US release, which should be the version I saw in Tokyo. The director, Richard Curtis, is known for Four Weddings and Funerals, Notting Hill and Love Actually, seven years younger than me, but was growing up in the 60s listening to those happy British tunes. Those innocent pop tunes in the 60s should have influenced him much, as shown in his depiction of those characters of his famous romantic comedies. So I had a pretty high expectation for this film, as a fan of those music and music scene.
It’s about the pirate music station which aired rock and pops 24/7 from a boat on the public sea because BBC wouldn’t air the vulgar music by those longhairs, not longer than 30 minutes a day. Yes, the story is simple and predictable (of course, we know its history), the humor is on the level of The Animal House, caricaturized politicians and bureaucrats are very British, like in a Monty Python episode, shallow but fine with the simple story line. The actors are great and so are their performances. The main feature is the music as it is its major theme.
The Pirate Radio is vaguely based on the actual Radio Caroline, which is alive and well today, but our station in the film has a brief life from 1966 to 1969. The ship is filled with odd casting of DJs and crew, with a single lady cook who is lesbian. One DJ is an American but his rival is coming on board. And another enigmatic hermitlike DJ has a key role. The tone is very happy, it says like music is a joy of life, nobody can kill the music, everybody loves dancing, you know what I mean? Well, it really was like that in the 60s. Girls loved dancing or loved to imitate. We boys bought tons of vinyl records eagerly and tried to learn their lyrics, guitar chords and riffs. And those were the golden days of the radio, too. I used to listen to top 20 kinda programs of British charts, New Musical Express and Melody Maker, where DJs urged us listeners to vote for their favorite bands, asking us which band we’d support, Beatles or Rolling Stones? Every week, there was a battle of the bands, Kinks vs. Troggs, Herman’s Hermits vs. Hollies, etc. We boys discussed how our favorite bands lost by those girl fans who didn’t realize the meaning of the new music of rock and how they always preferred the good looks, with jealousy, after that. And I can still clearly recall when I heard for the first time “Gold and Silver” by Quicksilver Messenger Service and “Section 43” by Country Joe & Fish on US Army radio FEN. Though it was way past midnight, those golden guitar licks and colorful organ opened the night sky and let the California sunshine in. So this film is just for me, for us, who were there, no, around then, I mean.
I did enjoy it untill its climax. It’s not a great movie, but a lovable one. Like an old friend, it sent me back to my youth, and reminded me of those happy days of singalong and street dancing. Since coming home, I’ve been listening to internet Pirate Radio station most of the time. Yet I do have some quibbles, maybe not minor ones.
In the middle of the climax, I suddenly felt like thrown back from that time in the screen and shoved into my seat in the theater. Why? The background music was "Won’t Get Fooled Again" by the Who. Yeah, great tune, from their Who’s Next album in 1971. Right. Way past 1966-69 time frame, and that was the milestone for the band to really break into the American market. There was no echo of the early R&B or pseudo psychedelic reference in that tune. It was a genuine 70s hit. Yes, the director admits that he even added Cat Stevens’ “Fathers and Sons,” a 1970 song, and he knew that the singer/songwriter scene was after those days of the pirate stations. Well, I don’t give a damn about using that song because the lyrics perfectly fit the scene. Yet, I do care about the Who. Besides, the basic message of that film is that music matters. If it matters, then they should care about the use of the tunes. Plus, I wish he used more British flavored hits, instrumental music like “Albatross” by Fleetwood Mac, or British oddities like Whistling Jack’s. But they have to use more international hits in order to sell it to the world, which I do understand.
Another quibble is about the underdevelopment of the Bob character. That quiet hermitlike DJ, who spends a lot of time studying seriously about the new albums and new music. I can relate to him, because I knew there was a new generation of DJs, who were serious about the music. People like Tom Donahue. Of course, there were a bunch of crazy ones like Wolfman Jack, or later Dr. Demento. But that guy in the film always hides from the scene and we’re never informed about his DJing style. Only at the very last climatic disaster, we understand he really cares about the music, probably more than about people. Maybe somebody should have explained his attitude and philosophy to our protagonist earlier, so we can relate to the boy’s feeling toward this guy.
But those quibbles aside, it was a fun movie, reminding me of Richard Lester films, or the long forgotten Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, even. And it is about growing up/sexing the cherry, which should be boring but ok for me. Because it was actually like that. We boys were always chicken about girls, just dreaming of simply holding hands with girls, just like that Beatles song. So three hoorays for the brave girls without whom we’d never have known love!

50th Anniversary Issue of Hayakawa's SF

Hayakawa’s SF Magazine published its 50th anniversary issue. TOC is:
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Crystal Nights by Greg Egan
Scout’s Honor by Terry Bisson
The Waif by Gene Wolfe
Cactus dance by Theodore Sturgeon
Esoteric City by Bruce Sterling
Nonstop to Portales by Connie Willis
The Draco tavern by Larry Niven (r: from Uchujin)
Frozen Journey by Philip K. Dick (r)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Kurt Vonnegut (r)
You Can’t Get Back by R. A. Lafferty (r)
Come Live with Me by James Tiptree, Jr. (r)
Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson (r)
Fury by Alastair Reynolds
The Tale of the Wicked by John Scalzi
Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi
Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons
Makyo (roughly translated as Magic City) (last part of the serial) by Ken Asamatsu
It’s a big translation special, roughly double sized issue, priced at 2500 yen. A lot of recollection essays and regular columns of reviews, news, science, reader’s story, etc.
Congratulations to its long and honored history.

2010 Books

Wow, io9 has a list of books to look for in 2010. Has Amelia Beamer written a zombie romance? Incredible. I'm looking forward to it.

Cat Rambo

We've uploaded the translation of "The Dead Girl's Wedding March" by Cat Rambo, translated by Takashi Ogawa (Yoshio Kobayashi) at our Japanese language site.

Cover stories?

My favorite album of this summer is Under the Cover Vol. 2 by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs (yes, of the Bangles fame) . So pop, refreshing, and cute. They cover　tastefully nearly-forgotten smash hits of the 70s and 80s. And I have to think about the other cover songs of our media: fiction.
Yes, there’re a lot of stories and novels that are inspired by music. Howard Waldrop, George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and even James Tiptree, Jr. used to write such homage to music. And there are a lot of anthologies of stories that are inspired by particular musicians, such as Bruce Springsteen, Sonic Youth, the Fall, and Janice Ian. But although there’re occasional amusing pieces, I haven’t read an anthology entirely satisfying as a book. Are we no good in interpreting music into fiction?
Well, no, anthologies are not like cover albums, more like compilations. Ah, that must be the case. I’ve also never liked compilation albums, except handful songs in them. So why has any writer never tried a single author’s collection of music-inspired stories? I bet all the above-mentioned writers can. Music and fiction are so alienated?
Still, on the other hand, we have a lot of anthologies of stories which are inspired by other stories. Like this year’s Poe’s, or Jack Vance’s. They seem to be good, although again I find the stories are good, I don’t think I can sincerely say I like an entire anthology in this tradition as a book. They’re not copies (I mean duplicated copies) in the sense of cover songs, but too aspiring to be original. They are not pop enough, and never cute. And in those cases of Poe and Vance, they cover stories of classic, not those of the 70s and 80s, not ones of our youth. They’re more like Rod Stewart or Boz Scaggs covering standard pops, or Eric Clapton’s Robert Johnson tribute. They don’t have the same effect and loveliness. Why don’t writers write pastiche of the works of their influential peers or immediate antecessors? I remember a lot of young writers wrote good homage to Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and J. G. Ballard in the 70s. John Varley, Ed Bryant, Alexei Panshin, Tom Reamy, and many more! They were pop and cute! So why don’t I see any good fictional covers of Bill Gibson, Greg Benford, Lucius Shepard or Harlan Ellison by younger authors?
Yes, I know Ben Rosenbaum has written a chapbook of Calvino/Borges/Bradbury pastiche. Yes, it was pop and cute, but is it a sole exception? Is the current steampunk revival like that? Do they write the stories of their youths, reviving James Blaylock, or Tim Powers? No, I don’t think so.
Also I do know we have a bunch of good fictional homage to comics and movies. Even writers of mainstream literature and mystery as well as horror write that kind of works. Although they are pop, cute, and sometimes tasteful enough, I don’t think they’re refreshing rendition of their originals. Am I demanding too much?
SF is known to be good at sharing. Shared-world Universe stories and collaboration are popular. And we do adapt other people’s ideas into our own works, even if they’re fictitious. So there should be no problem in covering the favorite works of our youths, but I don’t find any equivalent of cover songs in our fiction.
Oh I’d really like to see either tasteful retelling of the stories of my youth, or good interpretation of songs of my youth into fiction. But maybe that should be our jobs as translators, pop, refreshing, and cute rendition of original foreign language fiction into our own language, vice versa.

The location for the 26to50 web site has moved.

Hi guys,
The location for the 26to50 web site has moved.
The new location is: http://www.26to50.com/

Please change your bookmarks to http://www.26to50.com/.
Thank-you, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Molly and the Red Hat

I've posted my translation of "Molly and the Red Hat" by Benjamin Rosenbaum here. Thank you Ben, for understanding.

SF Signal

I have posted my take on SF in Japan at SF Signal Mind Meld. I'd like to review some books in Japan here, not particularly SF nor fantasy, but a lot of books have some fantastic elements in them these days.
Yoshio

The Orange by Benjamin Rosenbaum

This past week, "Orange Skies," a love song by one of the 60's most beloved bands, Love, has been ringing in my ears and I didn't know why. Today I've had a class at my translator school and suddenly understood. I let my students work on "The Orange" by Ben Rosenbaum. Beautiful story and a happy one, too. My students love it. And it deserves a happy song to accompany it. I don't know if Ben knows that particular song, or even Love, or not, but sometimes a story reminds me of a song that has no direct link to the story itself, and that insignificant connection usually gives me a joy. When I first read Neuromancer by Bill Gibson, songs of the Pretenders were echoing in my mind. Bill later confirmed me that Molly and Chrissie Hynde are of the same breed. Is there anyone who hears music in a story like that, too?

Charles N. Brown of Locus Died.

The founder and publisher of SF zine Locus has passed away. I've been the Japanese agent of that magazine for past two decades. I've just written an obituary for its July issue. Sad, terribly sad.

New Generation Gap Questionnaire

We're happy to open our site. Our first entry is New Generation Gap Questionnaire at Observation page. The questionnaire was originally translated and published in shorter version at Hayakawa's SF Magazine, June 2009 issue. If you'd like to leave a comment, do it here.