"Now Japan is a very small, flat, unified world. Everything is very small and very much the same. There are no Others. It tends to be relaxing but it can also be dull. You can't meet with the New or the Strange." Ryu Murakami's words might seem bleak to a Western audience. But to better understan

Anxiety, Dark, Dreamy, Eclectic, Lyrical, Postmodern fiction, Sexy

Sen Yen is the standard monetary measurement in Japan. That's 1,000 smackaroos --about ten dollars -- or an all-you-can eat platter of lunchtime sushi if you're living in Tokyo with a limited budget. If you look closely at the face of the bill that might pay for tomorrow's buffet, you will see a pict

Depressive, Epic, Lyrical, Melancholy, Modernist literature, Sardonic

Stokley Carmichael once said, "Everything is political." Apparently, poet Linton Kwesi Johnson agrees. The sound of his voice stays low and docile, as the humming of dub beats in the background lends a trance-like mood. But his are not calm words. The wrath of a gentle tiger broils in his laments aga

Agitated, Angry, Gritty, In-your-face, Lyrical, Overflowing, Political, Reggae, Social revolution, Spiritual

When artists come together in a spirit of union, they inevitably need a pulpit from which to expound their theories. For the Brits making films in the late '40s and early '50s, that pulpit was Sequence. Many filmmakers of the Free Cinema Movement and the British New Wave found the pages of this journ

Dark, Lyrical, Violent, Visceral, Young british/kitchen sink/free cinema