“Made in Japan” 

After I finished with my business meetings and presentations late Monday, K had us on the train to Takayama, the first of several additional destinations (Hakone, Kyoto, and Naoshima) we have been visiting since then. I’ve been to Kyoto before, but never to Takayama, Hakone, or Naoshima, all of which have lots to offer in terms of natural beauty, world-class hotels and ryokans (traditional inns), art and history museums, gourmet restaurants, friendly food stalls, and more Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples than you could imagine.

We are in Naoshima as I write this, a lush little island in the Seto Sea that is heavily populated with fantastically serene and sophisticated sculpture gardens and museums of contemporary art.

I have to say this about Japan (and I know, I said it before): The Japanese may not be inventors, but when some other country creates something – anything from an idea to a technique to a style – the Japanese “appropriate” it and bring it to a new and better level.

So much of the art, the architecture, the crafts, and the decor in Japan is undeniably more subtle and sophisticated than the originals. And when it comes to anything trendy – from pop music to street art to teen fashion – the Japanese add a self-conscious note of irony to it that makes it less self-important and more fun.

I’m writing from Benesse House on Naoshima. It’s actually much more than a hotel, because it contains three separate museums, including one devoted to Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photography. I’ve liked his work when I’ve seen it in US museums, but to see so much of it curated and hung so tastefully here… I am feeling like I often do when I get to see a large collection of an artist’s ouvre. I feel like I really understand why he is considered great.

If you’ve never seen Sugimoto’s work, most of it is less like photography than reductionist paintings. There are some pieces that are strongly reminiscent of Mark Rothko. (Maybe even more intense!)

And others that are muted black and gray landscapes that remind me of Robert Kipniss, a favorite of mine who’s not well enough recognized.

This afternoon, we visited another nearby museum, the Lee Ufan Museum, a collaboration between Ufan, a sculptor that works mostly in steel and natural stone, and Tadao Ando, the architect who created this set of buildings, corridors, gardens, and rooms with views that is reminiscent of the Guggenheim Museum in LA, but smaller and much more affecting (and with better views).

Okay, I’ll stop now.

Well, just one more thing: Everything about Japanese architecture, public and private, interior decor and landscape design, furniture, lighting, doors and windows, bathtubs, showers, and even toilets is simply more ingeniously and more thoughtfully made than it is in the US.

The US has contributed many more inventions and novelties to the world, including artistic, cultural, and amusement concepts – but when you embed yourself in Japan, even a little, as we’ve been doing for nearly a month now, you can see how far from perfect American-made is.

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Just a Few Questions About the Attempted Assassination. That’s All. 

I know what you are going to say… and you are right.

As to this attempted assassination of Trump, I’m a conspiracy theorist. I mean. Really. It’s all so bizarre!

* That the shooter was a 20-year-old, non-political, registered Republican.

* That the rooftop he mounted was not guarded. It wasn’t a mile away. It was 140 yards from the podium, which, a number of gun experts said, was an easy shot “even for an amateur.”

* That the shooter was seen and reported to officials as he climbed up on the roof… minutes before he started shooting. And nothing was done.

* That six or more shots were fired before Trump was hit and yet none of Secret Service officers around him made a move to protect him.

* That when they led him off the stage, they did not cover him like they should have but allowed him to be exposed for additional shots.

* That several people in the crowd were shot. This kid may have been a poor shot, but one of his bullets hit the mark – so why weren’t the others that were hit nearby him? Why were they so far away?

* But the oddest part of it for me was this: They say that the kid was “taken out” by some Secret Service marksman. When and how and from where? There’s something fishy there.

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Eight Quick Bites 

Since K and I set off to Japan on June 24, I’ve not read a single book or watched a movie. Now that my speeches and meetings here are done, I’m hoping to get back to writing movie and book reviews. In the meantime, I’ve written mini-reviews of various newspaper articles and magazine essays I’ve read on trains and in cars, shuffling from one place to another, which I found – for one reason or another – worth recommending.

* The Boycott Against Israel 

The anti-Israeli protests and rallies that were ubiquitous among Western colleges and universities since the beginning of the year have diminished considerably since the summer recesses began, but the efforts by academic and cultural groups and institutions to support Hamas and Hezbollah terrorism by boycotting everything Israeli – from Israeli technology to Israeli consumer goods to Israeli participation in educational and cultural events – are stronger than they have ever been this summer. And according to this essay recently published by the WSJ, those boycotts are being felt far and wide in Israel.

Read Time: 12 min.

 

* The Case for Kamala Harris 

In this piece published recently in Slate, Jill Filipovic, argues that Kamala Harris would be a great replacement for Joe Biden, but she fears that the American public is too racist and misogynist to elect her. I’m recommending it not because I think it has any merit, but to illustrate the almost astonishing detachment from reality and pre-adolescent logic it takes to make an argument like this.

Read Time: 8 min. (but you may give up after 2 or 3)

 

* AI and the Future of Books 

“Scraping” is a term that describes the process of feeding massive amounts of diverse data into AI entities. When R.O. Kwon discovered that one of her books had been scraped from a book data site that some AI models were trained on at the time, she felt cheated. She realized that not only was her work taken from her without compensation, but that all sorts of elements of her creativity, including her diction, sentence structure, grammar, and literary style were being gobbled up, too. “It’s potentially the biggest rip-off in creative history,” says Douglas Preston, a bestselling author and one of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit filed against Microsoft and ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

Click here.

Read Time: 55 min.

 

* Returning to the Music of Natalie Merchant 

“Just around the time I was introduced to Natalie Merchant’s music, Mary Pipher’s book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (1994) made cultural waves as an exposition of girlhood and adolescence,” Jenny Boyar writes in this LA Review of Books essay about Merchant’s effect on her life, including a theme she sees in Shakespeare’s depiction of Ophelia. There’s no doubt that Merchant’s primary audience has been young women, and particularly those swept up by leftist social causes. But I was a mid-forties, politically middle-of-the-road man when I first got hooked by her. I can’t say Boyar’s insights helped me understand my attraction to Merchant, but they do shed light on why and how she had such an effect on so many smart, young women of that time.

Read Time: 18 min.

 

* Big Pharmacy-Benefit Managers 

I believe I’ve heard the term before, but I forgot or never understood what it meant. Benefit managers are businesses that corporate health plans and employers hire to manage drug benefits for insured employees. They are supposed to be working for the good of the employees they give advice to. But according to the FTC, they are steering patients away from perfectly effective medicines and therapies that are inexpensive and towards others that are more profitable to them. To the tune of $1.6 billion.

Click here.

Read Time: 14 min.

 

* Should Businesses Offer Well-Being Days? 

Can you improve the mental health and attitude towards their work by giving employees days off to restore their mental health? In this article from Raconteur Daily, two experts debate the pros and cons. Can you guess which one I agree with?

Read Time: 4 min.

 

* Why Does NATO Exist? 

I don’t agree with the argument Dan Gardner makes in this essay in support of NATO, but he does a good job of laying it out from an historical perspective. In a future issue, I’ll give you my thoughts. Meanwhile, I thought this was worth reading.

Click here.

Read Time: 11 min.

 

* An Alternative Education 

In the most recent issue of Doug Casey’s International Man, Jeff Thomas recommends to a young woman what she should do instead of going to college next year.

Click here.

Read Time: 4 min.

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American Workers Have Quit Quitting, for Now 

The job-hopping frenzy of the pandemic years has given way to what some economists are calling the “big stay.” Click here. 

 

Home Insurance Keeps Surging 

Home insurers are pushing for big rate increases and weakened consumer protections – and states, fearful of losing their coverage, appear to be buckling.

Click here.

 

Another Victory for Unions 

GM sent in this article about a small coffee chain closing in Philadelphia after employees thought it might be a good idea to unionize and demand higher pay. “I’m sure they all planned on how to spend their newly won gains before, oops, the SHTF,” said GM.

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From Letters Live: The hilarious story of Delmore the cat 

Woody Harrelson cannot contain himself when reading a letter written by John Cheever to a Josie Herbst, a fellow writer, about the behavior of a cat whom Herbst had foisted on him before moving to another state.

Click here.

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A Fisherman Walking Across the Dry Bed of the Amazon River 

In 2023, parts of the Amazon experienced an extreme drought, the worst in over a century. Communities affected by the drought lost access to drinking water, transportation, and other necessities of daily life.

This was a Regional Winner (South America) from the World Press Photo Contest.

“This image encapsulates the undeniable reality of the environmental crisis and drought in the Amazon,” wrote the jury. “Organic and captured at the perfect moment, its composition powerfully conveys the gravity of the situation. Standing alone, it serves as a powerful representation of the challenges facing the Amazon and their global effects.”

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Central American Modernism, the book that Suzanne Snider and I wrote and published two years ago, is still getting “noticed” by smaller art publications

This is from Palm Beach ArtsPaper.

Ed. Note: Readers of this blog get a 40% discount off the $259 list price of Central American Modernism. That makes your cost $150 (which includes free shipping in the USA). To order your copy, go to Centralamericanmodernism.com and enter the discount code msave40.

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