Sometimes, even the Japanese out do themselves. Today I'd like to show you a music video by a band named Polysics. Polysics are completely influenced by DEVO. The music isn't all that great but this one particular video is awesome. This video is just one camera and no editing. The entire video consists of one girl doing what's called "Top Rock" dancing.
Watching this you'll see why I think, when Devo's popularity waned, they should have done what over-the-hill American baseball players do: Go to Japan! They'd still be hugely popular here. Since Devo didn't come here to Japan... The Japanese made their own copy...
Now, I really loved early Devo, don't get me wrong. But, in many ways, the Japanese version (copy) is better. Here's proof. Judge for yourself.
When it comes to what is known as B-Boying or Break Dancing, the Japanese are often disparaged as having no rhythm. Quite often, even I think this too. But, then again, I guess the Japanese are no worse than Caucasians (of which, explains why I'm a real loser when it comes to music and dancing; I have zero rhythm since I am half Japanese and half Caucasian!)
Scene from "I Me Mine" - See this awesome video below!
But then again, every once in a while, I see something that the Japanese do (usually a sort of copy) that really impresses me.
Today I want to introduce a Japanese Rock band called that Polysics. No, I am not that impressed with their music at all. I was a big Devo fan in their early days and the Polysics remind me of another Japanese band from the early 1980's called the Tokyo Plastics; so the Polysics do not strike as doing anything new at all.
But they did make a series of videos (with one especially) that really impressed me to this very day. The song is called "I, Me, Mine" and the original video for it has over 1.4 million views in Japan. This is great for a Rock band that is definitely considered a band with a cult following at most.
This guy also does a wild Michael Jackson in the second video!
The girl (and guy) in the video is doing what oldsters like me might call Breakdancing, or B-boying, but I gather that it is actually a sort of Top Rock or Freeze dancing. The girl is amazing. The most amazing part is that their are no cuts or edits in this first video. Watch it. This is awesome!
Here is a different version that I wish would have featured only the guy. He's great too! From about 1:09 he starts up with the hilarious Michael Jackson stuff.
Pretty cool, eh? It just goes to show that the Japanese are excellent at conceptualism. While they might not be so great at new ideas, they are sometimes masters making old ideas so much better.... And I would say that the girl dancing is very sexy... But I guess I shouldn't say I think Japanese High School girls are sexy. I save that for Andrew at "It's a Wonderful Rife".
I think these are the best songs and video Devo NEVERmade!
--------- This blog post was originally made in August of 2010, but the original video keeps getting deleted from Youtube. This one won't get deleted. Enjoy!
Keywords: Devo, Polysics, B-Boying, high school girl, Mike Rogers, Polysics, Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Break Dancing
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The band's name is Jyoubachi. In Japanese it is: 女王蜂 That translates to "Queen Bee" but George Williams, the top Vee Jay in Japan tells me that he doesn't think the Japanese name is queen bee... Oh well, if George doesn't know then I don't know who would.
Jyoubachi
From what little I know about this band is that they are fronted by a trans-sexual lead singer. Their online biography mentions nothing of this and says:
Ziyoou-vachi is a 4-piece rock band from Japan. They
formed in Kobe in 2009, and after playing together for about a year they were chosen to play on the extremely selective "Rookie a Go-Go" stage at Japan's mammoth Fuji Rock festival. Their performance there caught the ears of Japan's rock fans, but what really brought them to prominence was a landmark gig at a secret party held by the fashion brand Hysteric Glamour last November. After that night, they became the talk of Japan's fashion cognoscenti.
In March of 2011, they started selling their first
self-recorded CD-Rs at live shows. Those discs, "The
Mad Princess" and "The Wrath of the Royal Family",
quickly sold out, and allowed the band's label Ziyoou
Records to release their next recording "Witch Hunt"
nationwide. And now they'll put out their major-label
debut on Sony Music Associated Records in Fall 2011.
The night she announced their decision to sign with a
major, bandleader Avu-chan decided to share the
band's reasoning, which was basically that they'd "get to wear way more awesome clothes" and "push to even further levels of excess." That should give listeners some clue as to what sort of debut to anticipate.
The song I've picked for you today is called 待つ女 (Woman in Waiting)
Jyoubachi - Woman in Waiting
The shooting and violence reminds me of the Dead Weather's "Treat Me Like Your Mother" but it is different and fresh enough not to bother me with too much similarity. I hate it when I can say, "This band reminds me of (this or that) band."
"The chickens have come home to roost" - Malcolm X
I had many reasons for leaving the USA and moving overseas. One of the big reasons was, because of traveling outside of the USA a lot, especially in university days, I began to realize that the story (brainwashing) about the USA being the "Greatest country on earth" (that we were all exposed to throughout our youth in school) wasn't exactly true.
The propaganda involving American exceptionalism and how "we are different (better)" certainly wasn't true either.
Many people's of the world are proud of their countries (rightly so) and think they are living in the best country in the world... I've met lots of those outside the USA. Before I had met these people, I was under the impression that everyone was desperately trying to find a way to escape their country and get to the USA...
Maybe trying to escape to the USA was the dream of most people during World War II. It's not that way today. In fact, it's definitely become the opposite of that today; American people are trying to leave the USA.
I notice that, over this last year or two, this trickle of folks escaping from the USA has gotten bigger and bigger. Of course, the MSM doesn't report it. MSM only reports about important things like what kind of spray tans the stars use, but the fact that entire web sites and blogs, (like my favorites, International Man, or Dollar Vigilante) as well as many other online and offline publications that have popped up supporting expatriation or diversifying out of the dollar, shows you what I told people in the early 2000's: People who can read the writing on the wall are getting out of the USA.
"Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home
is to be charged against provisions against danger,
real or pretended from abroad."
- James Madison in a letter to Thomas Jefferson
I warned people about that just after the Invasion of Iraq. My friends scoffed. I doubt that they scoff anymore (or maybe they are still clueless or in denial).
Anyone who studied any sufficient amount of history should have seen the parallels of what happens to a country that wages wars of aggression to what that means for the domestic populace. I certainly wasn't the only one who saw it coming. My example was the historical record of the smart Jewish people and some wealthy and educated people leaving Germany and Europe before 1939. By Sept. 1, 1939, even those who wanted to leave, couldn't.
I knew what was going to happen. Many others did too. That the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq were a precursor to today problems in the USA should have come to no surprise to anyone. Of course these types of foreign adventures and wars of aggression lead to a collapse of society; they always have throughout the course of human history. To think that these incidents and wars would not lead to the current US debt, economic problems and a loss of freedom is foolish. To think that foreign wars would not lead to a suppression of the people and a rise of the police state is to ignore history... These economic problems and despair, and other recent examples such as the police beating of OWS protesters were completely predictable (they'll get much worse too!) Or, even this wonderful tidbit about how well life in America is today from Reuters this surprises no one:
A shopper pepper-sprayed other bargain hunters and robbers shot at customers to steal their Black Friday purchases, marring the start of the U.S. holiday shopping season, according to authorities.
Up to 20 people were injured after a woman used pepper spray at a Walmart in Los Angeles to get an edge on her competitors. In a second incident, off-duty officers in North Carolina used pepper spray to subdue rowdy shoppers waiting for electronics.
A man was in critical but stable condition after being shot by robbers in a parking lot outside a Walmart In San Leandro, California, at 1:50 a.m. (0950 GMT), Sergeant Mike Sobek said.
The man was in a group of men headed for their car after shopping when robbers confronted them and a fight ensued, Sobek said. The man's shopping companions held down one of the robbers until police arrived and took him into custody.
What's the problem here, officer? Boys will be boys. If you guys can pepper-spray peaceful protesters then why can't this lady pepper-spray a pack of insane and possibly dangerous shoppers out buying crap? I mean, think about it, anyone who would get up early and line up at a Walmart to buy cheap made in China junk must be insane and dangerous... At least dangerous to themselves!
I can write this sort of critique of the USA today, but even 7 years ago, when I wrote about how bad the USA was becoming, in America is Bankrupt, I received lots of hate mail and even a few death threats. Today, from seeing so many different writings and publications on the Internet along the same lines as what I wrote about, talking about USA expatriation is no longer laughed at, but seriously considered by those who matter.
In fact, the window has almost closed, folks. If you can get out now, you should. You won't be able to so easily in the near future.
Recently I was surfing the internet and reading some of my favorite writers and thinkers when something dawned on me. I read articles or interviews with the following people – all of whom I respect and enjoy their viewpoints – in approximately the following order:
Marc Faber, The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report
Doug Casey – Founder, Casey Research
Jim Rogers – American investor and author
Jim Willie – Hat Trick Letter
Dudley Baker – PreciousMetalsWarrants.com
Fred Reed – Author
Can you name something which they all have in common? If you said that they are all top writers or speakers about free markets and/or precious metals you'd be correct. But that isn't their only similarities. They also all have expatriated from their country of origin. After having read seven articles in a row I realized that every person I was reading has already defected from the USSA or other similar western countries.
Like I said, the smart people have gotten out.
It is not unusual to write about these things today. It was risky to do so seven years ago... But when I first decided to move here to Japan in the early 1980's, there was no one that I could tell my fears to... In those days, if you had told anyone that you believe that the USA was way overstepping its authority and turning into the new Nazi state, American people would have thought you were nuts.
Probably most foreigners, the world over, would have just nodded their head and said, "What took you so long to figure that out?"
To recall an experience when I was working at a company office before I came to the USA allows me to exemplify one case of just how twisted the modern American mindset has become. This is the case of the US invasion of Grenada. For me, this was a quick preview of what was coming for the USA. I didn't like it at all.
Ronald Reagan was the president of the USA. He had won by a landslide against Jimmy Carter in 1980. The US invaded Grenada in 1983.
In 1981, I had started working at a Prudential district office as a salesman / broker. The other salesmen were nice guys and most of them were typically at least 20 ~ 30 years older than me and many of them were ex-military men.
One day when I came to the office they were drinking and having a celebration. I walked in and it was a happy scene. A few dozens guys drinking and eating and having several "toasts" to whatever it was they were toasting. When they saw me they shouted, "Mike! Come on in! Have a drink! We're celebrating!"
I grabbed a drink and was very happy to join the party! "Wow! Drinking at work? Cool!" I then asked, "What are we celebrating?"
To which several guys smiled and said to me, "We won a war!"
"What war?" I replied.
A very nice older guy named Jim Cline said, "We invaded Grenada and won a war! The Vietnam war is over! We've won!"
At first, I was happy. But then it dawned on me... "What the hell are we doing invading some Caribbean nation and half these people don't even know where that is?"
The MSM was reporting that we invaded that island nation to save US university students... Then the story was something about 5,000 Cuban regular army on the island building an airport... There were so many excuses. (sounds like Iraq?)
Later, I went to the public library and found out some truths. First off, if you are Cuban, everyone is in the army so 5,000 "Cuban regulars" means about 600 Cuban soldiers, their wives and their 8 kids. The University students were never in any danger and that the UK and several other nations severely protested the US action as US imperialism (Nah! Couldn't be! We're the good guys, remember?) and that a US puppet government was put into power. So much for being the good guys.
While the invasion enjoyed broad public support in the United States, and received support from some sectors in Grenada from local groups who viewed the post-coup regime as illegitimate, it was criticized by the United Kingdom, Canada and the United Nations General Assembly, which condemned it as "a flagrant violation of international law".
I remember thinking that everything the US media was telling us about this naked aggression was a complete lie. I remember thinking,
"Hey! We're supposed to be the Land of the Free! We're supposed to be helping people and spreading democracy (and I don't mean from the barrel of a gun). We're not supposed to be invading other countries!!!"
The writing was on the wall for me. I hated my job and, because I studied television and media in university I understood how this brainwashing business worked (thanks Mr. Al Miller). I could see what kind of right wing America we were heading for. I was surprised that no one else saw it coming, it seemed to me.
I was still young, cocky and believed I could do anything I wanted.
And I wanted to be free. I left the US police state. Now there are many following.
I do feel vindicated. I feel sorry for those in the USA who fail to see what's coming. I am still, to this day, astounded that even university educated people (like my family) in the USA support the vast US empire and military industrial complex. Their day of reckoning is almost here.
.....Inside their borders, as Americans get tazed, pepper sprayed, beaten and caged on a regular basis, they are beginning to realize that the land of the free and home of the brave was a catchy jingle from centuries ago. It is now the land of the fee, home of the slave.
TRAPPED
Today, as the American government works to erect a wall and conducts unmanned drone flights on the border with Canada, many in the US are awakening to the fact that they are becoming trapped.
The US Government has even made it so all student debt is now completely inextinguishable in bankruptcy... meaning that for students who wasted 4-8 years of their life getting what is often a worthless piece of paper and six figures of debt, they will be enslaved for life and, as we are predicting at TDV, will be forced into the military to pay off their obligations.
GIVE THANKS IF YOU WERE NOT BORN IN THE US
In an erstwhile change of fortune, what was once the best place to be born, between 1623-1970 has now become one of the worst. Only those born in North Korea and Cuba, and a handful of other despotic regimes, can be said to be much worse off.....
It's 1939 again... Excepting the fascists have taken control of the USA.
Get out while you still can.
US Government Hypocrisy. Watch this:
NOTE: Thanks to T. Foley for part of this article's inspiration. T graduated from a top class California University at Santa Barbara. I used to think he was an intelligent guy... That is until he was totally "Gung-ho!" for the Iraq invasion and actually told me before that fiasco started, "We'll be in and out in 4 weeks!" ... I totally lost respect for him and the rest of the "Gung-ho!" people he associated with then. Here were people who were university educated and vehemently anti-Vietnam war just a few years before, but then, at that time, they suddenly became cheerleaders for the US military machine? Extraordinary!
Now, every guy in Japan can satisfy their wettest of dreams licking the girls in AKB48 in the ass. Well, maybe not every guy, but definitely by every pervert and geek in Japan. For the most disgusting news and proof of the decline of Japan, read on....
In another attempt to show people the easy way shore up the flagging fortunes of business, the Japanese postal service shows everyone a novel idea in how to come out of a deep of a mountain of debt! The Japanese Post Office has announced that they've steeped to new lows and will release postage stamps with AKB48 on them.
So now even you can lick these girls on their behinds!
Woof!
Oooh! Yeah! Makes me uncomfortable and sweaty just thinking about it.
Japan Post Network Co. is taking orders online and at post offices across the nation for stamp sheets featuring AKB48, the popular all-girl pop group, for distribution in February.
The sets feature the group's Team A, Team K and Team B versions on a made-to-order basis and cost ¥5,700 each. They include seal-type ¥50 stamps plus postcards and letter sets.
AKB48
After accepting orders online through Jan. 9 and at post offices through Jan. 6, Japan Post will send out the sets starting Feb. 1.
Japan Post said it will hold a drawing in which customers can win postcards with members' original autographs.
I remember when I was a kid, I collected stamps (until I figured out that pieces of paper had no intrinsic value and started collecting silver). This would definitely make me stop collecting stamps! I'll be all these pervert dorky Japanese guys who couldn't get a girlfriend if their life depended on it, will buy a set or ten.
Not only will these turkeys buy the sets, they will never use them and just keep them.
The post office knows this and knows they can make a bunch of money for little work. Just print up a bunch of stamps that people will want to collect for their "future value" (cough cough) and there you'll have dumb people just giving you money.
Of course, any other beautiful design idea submissions will be cheerfully "considered."
In spite of my negative reviews, I think this is a much better idea than raising taxes. If the post office has it figured out this far, makes you wonder why the government can't keep doing more things like this to pay for reconstruction after the Tohoku disaster.
I do understand that the Japanese Postal Service is "privatized" but there's gotta be a way for them to get together to work out a deal for reconstruction...
After all, this issue of AKB48 stamps proves a few things:
1) Just when you thought it would be impossible to do, Japanese music, incredibly, gets worse.
2) As a reader recently pointed out that Japanese kids are no longer interested in western culture as they no longer desire to study English, Japanese society and culture is crumbling.
3) Japan is still a rich country.
4) There's still a sucker born every minute (in this case, a "licker"?)
