Ged Carroll

Category: culture | 文明 | 미디어와 예술 | 人文

Culture was the central point of my reason to start this blog. I thought that there was so much to explore in Asian culture to try and understand the future.

Initially my interest was focused very much on Japan and Hong Kong. It’s ironic that before the Japanese government’s ‘Cool Japan’ initiative there was much more content out there about what was happening in Japan. Great and really missed publications like the Japan Trends blog and Ping magazine.

Hong Kong’s film industry had past its peak in the mid 1990s, but was still doing interesting stuff and the city was a great place to synthesise both eastern and western ideas to make them its own. Hong Kong because its so densely populated has served as a laboratory of sorts for the mobile industry.

Way before there was Uber Eats or Food Panda, Hong Kongers would send their order over WhatsApp before going over to pay for and pick up their food. Even my local McDonalds used to have a WhatsApp number that they gave out to regular customers. All of this worked because Hong Kong was a higher trust society than the UK or China. In many respects in terms of trust, its more like Japan.

Korea quickly became a country of interest as I caught the ‘Korean wave’ or hallyu on its way up. I also have discussed Chinese culture and how it has synthesised other cultures.

More recently, aspect of Chinese culture that I have covered has taken a darker turn due to a number of factors.

  • Thelonius Monk + other things

    Thelonius Monk

    The soundtrack to my week was this three hour programme on the music of jazz musician Thelonius Monk. Thelonius Monk has 99 albums to his name, excluding compilations, many of which were live concert performances rather than studio recordings. He was known for his improvisation and was one of the found fathers of bebop.

    KCRW put together a great tribute to Thelonius Monk that hits all of the high spots that I know of in his career, that was cut short at the age of 64 in 1982.

    Sailor Moon + syphilis – two concepts I never thought I would utter in the same sentence

    Only Japan could successfully leverage a much loved children’s TV and comic book character to try and reduce syphilis infections. It was interesting to hear that the creator of Sailor Moon was a pharmacist who saw the urgency and need. Quartz alludes to Shinjuku – the entertainment district being the epicentre. Japan like its neighbours has seen an increase in foreign sex tourism from other Asian markets.

    This is solely down to a larger Chinese middle class who visit prostitutes for bonding business relationships (sharing knowledge of each others transgressions builds trust). There is also macho posturing to reinforce hierarchies and subjugate the sex workers. They also go for pleasure when they’re on holiday. Basically, they’re absolute scum.

    Japanese hi-fi enthusiasts

    Great short film by the Wall Street Journal about obsessive Japanese Hi-Fi buffs. I love the extremes that they go to in order to get the best sounds.

    Uniqlo Danpan

    A Uniqlo campaign is always something that I look forward to and Uniqlo Danpan is no exception

    Volkswagen

    Interesting effort to move the discussion on around the Volkswagen brand from Dieselgate. The reality is that Dieselgate will be with us for years as it rolls through court cases and is cited with regards the need for electric cars.

  • Out and about: Blade Runner 2049

    *** No plot spoilers*** Where do you start when talking about Blade Runner 2049 – the most hyped film of the year?

    Blade Runner 2049 starts up some 20 years after the original film. It captures the visuals of the original film, moving it onwards.  The plot has a series of recursive sweeps that tightly knit both films together which at times feels a little forced, a bit like the devices used to join Jeremy Renner’s Bourne Legacy to the Matt Damon canon.

    Blade Runner 2049

    The 1982 film took the neon, rain and high density living of Hong Kong in the late summer and packaged it up for a western audience.  Ever since I first saw  it represented a darker, but more colourful future. I felt inspired, ready to embrace the future warts and all after seeing it for the first time.

    The new film is a darker greyer vision largely devoid of hope. You still see the Pan Am and Atari buildings of the first film, now joined with brands like Diageo. The police cars are now made by Peugeot. It also captures the visual language of the book, something that Scott hadn’t done in the original to the same extent. In the book, Dick (and the Dekkard character) obsess on how the depopulated world’s crumbling ephemera is rapidly becoming dust.

    Visually the film dials down its influences from Hong Kong, Tokyo or Singapore and instead borrows from the crumbling industrial relics of the west and third world scrap driven scavenging from e-waste in China and Ghana to the ship breaking yards of Bangladesh. The filthy smog and snow is like a lurid tabloid exposé of northern China’s choking pollution during the winter. It paints a vision more in tune with today. Automation and technology have disrupted society, but orphans are still exploited for unskilled labour and vice is rampant.

    Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford do very capable performances. And they are supported by a great ensemble of cast members of great character actors at the top of their game. Dave Bautista, Robin Wright, Barkhad Abdi (Eye in The Sky) and David Dastmalchian (MacGyver, Antman, and The Dark Knight). The one let down is Jared Leto – who now seems to play the same character in every film since his career high point of Dallas Buyer’s Club – I suspect that this is as much a problem with casting as performance. I think he needs to be cast against type more.

    For a three-hour film it still manages to hold your attention and draw you in to its universe without feeling tired. It’s also a film that forces you to think, so if you are looking for visual wallpaper for the mind a la Marvel’s Avengers series of films it won’t be for you.

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  • Mosby + other things

    Mosby

    Mosby is a long haired Belgian shepherd. His owner put together a monologue and some carefully curated footage to come with simply great content. Mosby’s Motto is deceptively simple. I imagine that it required a lot of raw candid footage that was then skilfully edited down into this two-minute video. The copywriting around Mosby also taps into popular themes around YOLO and follow your passion 

    Wrestling vs. rap

    The hyperbole of wrestling commentary with the rhymes of Snoop Dogg, it sounds like a marriage made in heaven right?

    Leica manufacturing

    I am a sucker for manufacturing and process videos. This video by Richard Seymour (not the Richard Seymour, design god and the talented one in SeymourPowell, but a similarly named photographer) on how Leica turns out its M-series cameras

    Verbing Velcro

    Velcro using humour to make a serious point about their brand IP. They challenge that Velcro faces is the degree to which their name ‘verbs’ as Faris Yakob would put it. Think about the way people might label their pet a ‘velcro’ dog because it sticks with them all the time. Velcro has been used as a synonym for clingy. All of this is great for marketing, bad for legal affairs.

    Greg Wilson

    This week I have mostly been listening to Greg Wilson. Wilson was one of the first DJs at The Hacienda and has been doing great productions for the last decade. This mix of early house classics surprised me a little because of his programming style (what he chose to play, the order and how he segued between the tracks). Wilson’s style was much more akin to that of the disco era DJs – it was all about the smooth flow, less about taking people on a journey or driving the dance floor in a more kinetic style and it caused me to re-listen to tracks that I have been familiar with for the best part of three decades. The context of Wilson’s had shifted them so fundamentally. More related content here.

  • Shōwa era + other things

    Shōwa era pop

    This week I have been listening to classic Japanese pop from the 1970s and 1980s – late Shōwa era for the win! The Shōwa era means ‘enlightened harmony’. It covers world war II and the subsequent economic miracle, right up to the bubble era of the Japanese economy. What we saw during the post-war Shōwa era was a massive outpouring of quality content in entertainment, film, music, product design, the arts and architecture.

    Canadian tourism board anime

    Canada’s tourism board has been running a campaign in Japan. They got the studio behind anime blockbuster ‘Your Name’ to do this 30-second spot in an anime style rather than the more traditional approach of using b-roll footage.

    It’s an interesting choice, especially given the dramatic scenery available in Canada and shows how important Canada must view the Japanese market. By comparison, there doesn’t seem to be any campaign targeting the UK or Ireland at all.

    The Isle of Dogs marries anime with Wes Anderson and looks amazing. The Isle of Dogs in question, is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay rather than the region of London.

    Porsche have done a great piece of content marketing about conductor Herbert von Karajan’s 1970s vintage Porsche 911 RS. von Karajan was famous, even amongst non-classical music fans for being a long time conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and his recordings on Deutsche Grammophon. This was probably helped by his recording being some of the first CDs available.

    Expect this in every planners tool box soon – German Performance Artists Act Out Amusingly Surreal Skits for Passengers Aboard Passing Trains

    While it might be seen to be a source of inspiration for PR stunts or experiential marketing, it fits into the idea of live advertisements that agencies and brands have been experimenting with over the past few years. More at Thinkbox here.

  • Alibaba Tencent and Huawei + more

    Alibaba Tencent and Huawei will take on the west’s technology players and win, predicts Sorrell – Mumbrella Asia – Alibaba Tencent and Huawei may also end up being Galapagos type businesses, or being seen a  threat by the Party because of their power. It would also be Huawei at least is a WPP client….

    Ideas

    The Equality of Opportunity Project  – This introductory course, taught by Raj Chetty, shows how “big data” can be used to understand and solve some of the most important social and economic problems of our time

    Luxury

    Rich Kid Buys Girl 8-Foot Tall Costco Teddy Bear, Gets Rejected | What’s on Weibo – interesting skepticism on viral moments or memes

    Free and Easy’s American Dream – Ralph Lauren magazine – great bit of media analysis on cult Japanese style magazine Free and Easy

    Security

    Source: Deloitte Breach Affected All Company Email, Admin Accounts — Krebs on Security – just wow

    China Blocks WhatsApp, Broadening Online Censorship – NYTimes.com – the wrong question being asked. Instead why did it last so long? Expect WeChat usage to pick up in Hong Kong etc for cross border communications

    Software

    macOS 10.13 High Sierra: The Ars Technica review | Ars Technica – great in-depth review

    Technology

    Will Imagination Deals Deliver MIPS to China? | EE Times – interesting discussions on the Tallwood VC / Canyon Bridge deal and possible implications for the MIPS eco-system. Interesting that China sees more potential and security in MIPS than ARM….

    Digital Evangelist: Imagination Technologies sale to Canyon Bridge – I rather expect that the Hertfordshire based business is likely to suffer the fate of Vertu and end up bankrupt and sold for scrap in less than two years because of mismanagement and the new owner having very little understanding as to just what they own and control  Imagination Technologies agrees £550m sale to Canyon Bridge | FT – the MIPS business goes to Tailwood VC (paywall)