a post-blog
How did this blog go from being a very active, daily source of opinion and debate about the Japanese pop culture industrial complex to a totally abandoned shell of a website with the only the occasional dry satire about imaginary musical phenomena? Two words for you: Master's thesis. The clock is ticking and I've got about one month to finish what is likely to become a one hundred page monstrosity of repetitive prose about market structure and innovation bracketed with sociological theory, suspect interpretive approaches, t-tests, regressions, and tacked on marketing language to somehow relate it all back to "business" - the last task being as simple as tying up a polar bear with cheap twine.
The good news is that I've done most of the first chapters and have most of the data ready to put in neat charts, so I'm not panicked quite yet, but today the teach' threw me a presentation for next week on "Beyond Reductionism: Four Models Relating Micro and Macro Levels" from the dreaded The Micro-Macro Link, muttering something vaguely about that chapter not being in the translated edition and me being the only English speaker in the class. Last year, I moaned about my marketing curriculum not dedicating enough to (economic) sociology, and now every single class period seems to be all about Durkheim and Weber's methodological quibbles for no apparent rhyme or reason. Graduate students, be careful what you wish for!
On a physical health level, I pulled out my right shoulder from carrying around all my records from the house to class to Kichijoji for the Kiiiiiii release party. If only playing Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets off an iPod were as cool as old vinyl! They need to make mp3s much heavier and more fragile in order to up the cultural cachet.
Back to the point: this lack of web activity is deeply depressing. I really like my blog and I'm very sad to log on in the mornings and have nobody chiding me for being ethnocentric. I'll try to do more next week, but my mind is elsewhere at the moment. I realized the other day, I'm just not being stimulated into writing about Japan anymore, but I blame the thesis: the intellectual fatigue dulls my observational powers. Working on an extended academic project is fun, but I'm a multiple-project type of person and I start to go crazy when one specific activity wrestles all the others off the mat. There's my new album, Radio MXUT Vol. 2, questions of my employment, and all sorts of other critical issues to deal with come January 11th. I beg of you all to allow me this next month of hiding, and I promise to return to my post with new, improved vigor, resolve, and infuriating ethnocentricity!
Posted by marxy at December 3, 2005 12:06 AMBest of luck - you're a talented writer, and a potent academic - I am sure you will do fine.
Ganbaru.
Posted by: non at December 3, 2005 2:41 AMI find this entry deeply ethnocentric... well, okay, I don't, I'm just trying to make you feel better.
Posted by: Momus at December 3, 2005 5:54 AMCongrats on the Whitney gig, Momus. I would have written a comment on your blog, but I'm blocked from commenting (for some reason, probably my web browser).
Posted by: marxy at December 3, 2005 9:46 AMHey Marxy, if gainful employment is an issue, you should get Louis Vuitton to sponsor your blog! Apparently they are interested in being patrons of social science for a Japanese audience:
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20051107p2a00m0na031000c.html
How meta-cool would it be if these lectures were about commodity fetishism?
Posted by: guest at December 3, 2005 9:52 AMAnd for those going through ethnocentricity withdrawal, please allow me to humbly offer this (in reference to the "Sturm und Traing" thread, which seems to be closed to comment):
Contrary to what MC wrote earlier, single-sex public schools do still exist in Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Miyagi prefectures. Among these are some of the most prestigious public high schools in the country (not necessarily an oxymoron). Miyagi is the champ, I believe, with 22 single-sex public schools.
Many of these schools have Old Boys who are very powerful and very conservative, so this is still a battle of attrition in Japan's current 文化戦争, but the Basic Law for a Gender Equal Society and the shrinking student population should eventually put the last few nails in the coffin. Congratulations to Fukushima, which abolished gender segregation a few years back!
(I wonder though, when all public schools finally go coed, will ruling class parents just send their sons to private schools, accelerating a trend we can already see in 東大 admissions? Anything to keep their golden eggs from yucky girl germs!)
I've read various things to the effect that the geographical proximity of these single-sex holdouts is no coincidence: One has it that the GHQ official in charge of education reform for the region was not the most progressive, another that education reform started in earlier western Japan, so that, unlike eastern Japan, its gender desegregation was complete by the time the reverse couse brought the conservatives back to power, putting the brakes on reform.
Posted by: guest at December 3, 2005 10:18 AMand more good news.
as if hearing the prophecy Matsushita denkou are aggressively promoting their new line of clothes dryers (on TV etc) so with the recovering economy and a bit of luck soon every house will have one.
Posted by: alin at December 3, 2005 10:32 AMThe recovering economy is great here if you're already rich.
Posted by: marxy at December 3, 2005 10:35 AMdon't you mean "middle class"?
Posted by: mkheart at December 3, 2005 1:47 PM