Carol Cooper – Page 5

GlobalFest Surges On

A worldly showcase flourishes, recession notwithstanding

GlobalFest showcases so much high-quality talent that artists accustomed to headlining elsewhere can find themselves opening this three-stage marathon to less-than-capacity crowds. But not in vain. Magnificent early sets by Ghanian neo-highlife combo the Occidental Brothers and New Orleans’ resplendent Hot 8 Brass Band were streamed live to Internet millions via WNYC and NPR radio, which will also offer Sunday’s performances for download beginning this Friday. Continue reading “GlobalFest Surges On”

New York – Anime Fest ’08 Sees the Triumph of Cute Over Evil

New York Anime Fest ’08
Javits Center
September 26-28
Photos by Paul Crispin Quintoriano
Full slideshow here

“Make tea parties, not war” might have been the secret slogan of this year’s New York Anime Fest, as the colorful parade of “Lolita” fashion dolls outdid the hordes of Samurai and military team warriors roaming the Javits Center this weekend. The humor in this juxtaposition was not lost on attendees, since humor — whether light, black or satiric — has always been a big part of the manga/anime scene. Fans delight when the comedians in their midst speculate about the homicidal logic of the Faustian drama Death Note being applied to Facebook; the cuteness of Hello Kitty is funny by default; and the con screening room erupts in laughter at every sexual sight gag or verbal innuendo in the already wacky scenario posed by the high school harem spoof Negima!. But no matter how “cute” the Sailor Scouts or Pokemon monsters might appear, they really only exist to kick butt — which is why the iconic triumph of Lolita gentility over the weapon and witchcraft wielding adventurers that dominate this pop subculture seems pretty much miraculous.

Friday’s screening of the live-action movie Kamikaze Girls predicted this victory. This unorthodox teen buddy movie, about the unlikely friendship between a combative Japanese gang-girl and a solitary dreamer who dresses like an aristocratic hedonist from 18th century Versailles, introduced the world to the anachronistic philosophy of Japanese Lolita fashion, which has nearly nothing to do with Nabokov and almost everything to do with Alice in Wonderland. The lead character’s use of custom made rococo-period clothing to telegraph her alienation from a “vulgar” quotidian reality was engineered by the real life Tokyo boutique Baby, the Stars Shine Bright. The shop was founded in 1988 after Vivienne Westwood, Adam & the Ants, and Prince had already tested the contemporary power of vintage ruffles and lace.

As a featured guest of this year’s Anime Fest, the “Baby” store brought visual elegance and high-concept to various panels and a Sunday afternoon fashion show that rivaled anything in Bryant Park this fall. These women in bloomers, bonnets, petticoats, corsets and parasols embodied the independence, wit, and creativity Kamikaze Girls protagonist Momoko uses to make the female biker gang abandon their narrow-minded, brutish conformity.

So although admiring crowds fought via aggressive video games or cheered daily combat demos by light-saber crews and genuine kendo masters, even katana-shredded targets failed to eclipse the gentler pursuits promoted by the Lolita sensibility. It even seemed to suffuse Saturday night’s concert, full of female vocalists and the androgynous “visual kei” posing of boy rockers like Quaff, who blend glam-rock fashion with arena-rock showmanship. I suspect a new era in fannish taste has begun… one in which the parasol is mightier than the sword.

Published in: Village Voice, September 30, 2008

Janet Jackson’s Dungeon Master Chic

Why it’s still as vital and revolutionary as ever

Janet Jackson
Discipline
Island

Sure, Madonna repeatedly toyed with BDSM in her videos, but she never publicly admitted to breast and genital piercings like Miss Jackson did. So, in case you weren’t tipped off from the Velvet Rope tour onwards, Janet’s innocuous Dream Street ingenue had to die so a baby dominatrix could be born—one with enough foot-stomping power and petulance to bend bossy parents, nasty boys, and the pleasure principle itself to her indomitable will. Now, seven studio albums later, Discipline reiterates the premise of Control, but as its fully mature apotheosis. Back in 1986, her stylized defiance always sounded a little playful, like a Sesame Street routine. But 2008’s Dungeon Master Janet delivers id-riddled pop-funk that’s as serious as a heart attack and marks a truly impressive transformation. It’s not every day that an NAACP Image Award winner outs herself as a genuinely kinky girl who believes that hard work and focus turn pain into pleasure. Continue reading “Janet Jackson’s Dungeon Master Chic”

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Turns 50 This Year

On the eve of his PEN American Center celebration, the Nigerian author sits down with the Voice

At Town Hall on February 26, the PEN American Center will host a star-studded tribute to Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. This literary gala, co-sponsored by Anchor Books and Bard College, will gather fellow luminaries like Toni Morrison, Ha Jin, and Colum McCann to honor the 78-year-old polymath, who remains one of African fiction’s most authentic and prophetic voices. Continue reading “Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Turns 50 This Year”

L.A. Consequential

Hipsters and hustlers, actors and addicts: Wanda Coleman’s new short-story collection

Jazz and Twelve O’Clock Tales
By Wanda Coleman
Black Sparrow Press, 160 pp., $22.95

Are the 13 short stories in Wanda Coleman’s Jazz and Twelve O’Clock Tales good enough to make white America reassess black America? To paraphrase a typically wry line from the book’s cop-culture parable “Shark Liver Oil,” Coleman knows she has the power to entertain, but only does so hoping “. . . the consciousness of that other community across town might be raised.” This slender volume of elegant prose does what decades of Jerry Springer and hip-hop have failed to do: reveal painful social truths without promoting human pathology. Continue reading “L.A. Consequential”

Meet the East Village “It” Couple of Young-Adult Lit

Living large in Y.A.

Teen-fiction authors Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier are living the dream. Major industry talents from Holly Black (author of Valiant) to David Levithan (Boy Meets Boy) routinely drink and schmooze in their spacious East Village digs. They cultivate fans and colleagues on their heavily trafficked blogs, enjoy upscale working vacations in Mexico, and migrate yearly between New York and Sydney. They rack up frequent-flier miles visiting libraries and book conventions to promote their latest literary efforts. And, most importantly, they finance this haute-bohemian lifestyle by writing speculative and fantastic adventures for smart adolescents. Continue reading “Meet the East Village “It” Couple of Young-Adult Lit”

Noir Mom

A Detective Pursues Her Own Daughter’s Abduction in Crossing the Dark

Crossing the Dark
By Heidi W. Boehringer
Serpent’s Tail, 244 pp., $14.95

Heidi W. Boehringer’s first novel, Chasing Jordan (2005), was a harrowing post-feminist meditation on how the modern nuclear family provides no safe haven for any of its members. The plot point she used to symbolize this systemic failure was a loving mother inadvertently causing the death of her own child. Crossing the Dark, Boehringer’s second book, now transplants the same basic theme and distaff perspective into the breezier realm of genre fiction, namely the police procedural. Once again, the lead character is a working mother — with all the mental and material insecurities inherent in that condition. But this time the mom is a recently divorced cop, and the crime around which the novel pivots is the kidnapping and serial rape of her 13-year-old daughter. Continue reading “Noir Mom”

The Public Enemy Remix Project’s “Bring the Noise” b/w “Give It Up”

Although techno (and its subsequent sub-genres) is now associated more with its white European exponents than its black American progenitors, Ultra Records’ new series of Public Enemy remixes (finally available in CD form this week) will remind you as much of Todd Terry and Derrick May as Paul Van Dyk or Ti DJ/remixers Don Diablo and Ferry Corsten (both Dutch), along with Benny Benassi (Italian), have updated two trenchant hip-hop manifestos for optimum exposure on multicultural dance floors around the globe. Continue reading “The Public Enemy Remix Project’s “Bring the Noise” b/w “Give It Up””

Solea Completes Jean-Claude Izzo’s Trilogy of Mediterranean Noir

With Solea, the third and final volume of his groundbreaking “Marseilles Trilogy,” out this month in English, Jean-Claude Izzo’s dark, revelatory portrait of the city of his birth is complete. Izzo died of cancer in 2000, but his strategically multiracial and pop-culture-savvy French crime novels spearheaded a Mediterranean noir movement that has since spread to Italy, Spain, Belgium, Algeria, and beyond. Although full of picturesque seasides, beautiful women, gourmet foods, and thriving rai and reggae nightclubs, Izzo’s town isn’t exactly the southern France of glossy tourist brochures or President Sarkozy’s conservative agenda. This is the young, disenfranchised, and disgruntled Marseilles that ultimately exploded in 2005’s nationwide race riots, provoked by National Front agitation and years of institutionalized oppression. Continue reading “Solea Completes Jean-Claude Izzo’s Trilogy of Mediterranean Noir”

Op-Education

The Devil & Dave Chappelle
By William Jelani Cobb
Thunder’s Mouth Press, 321 pp., $15.95

If any of the topical essayists currently appearing in New York dailies were graced with the wit, sensitivity, and insight of William Jelani Cobb, I’d rush to the newsstands every morning. Never annoyingly glib, cranky, or prolix, this former Queens resident brings persuasive humor and scope to a range of topics that beggars the often sloppily framed polemics of Gotham’s op-ed-page pundits. Continue reading “Op-Education”