I stumbled upon Sheena Ringo hearing her first album being played in a trendy Taipei record shop in the late 90s and became an instant fan. Back then she was known as the Queen of Grunge and her first two LPs really drove that home. After her pop success she expanded to psychedelic jazz with a fabulous vibe of 1960s seedy burlesque clubs and 1930s gin joints. Hands down Japan’s most high concept pop star, she never does a show or tv appearance without pulling out every stop and putting on a mixed media barrage of classy retro homage to the past century of japanese music. Her latest work in 2024 is a series of collaborations with younger pop divas which honor and respect both artists but with the expected and extravagant Ringo flair and polish. Heres a few videos, please watch them all.
Tag: jazz
Max Fleischer’s Color Classics
Last week i caught the tail end of a week long Fleischer Studios animation retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. You likely know them for the 1930s Betty Boop and Popeye shorts, but they started in the silent era and were interestingly based in Times Square rather than Hollywood. The 5 immigrant brothers built a film empire producing 800 films between 1919 and 1939, capped by their feature Gullivers Travels and the 1941 Superman series before being bought out by Paramount Studios and moving to TV in the 50s. They are credited with inventing many innovative animation techniques such as rotoscoping, 3D backgrounds, sound, color and combining animation with live action. The museum screened that day selections from the Fleischer Color Classics series from the 1930s, the first few shot on two strip technicolor, an early color film process using only reds and blues. Some excellent short films, lovely and funny. Unlike Disney, a midwesterner whose cartoons represented middle america, The Fleischers were New Yorkers and many of their films represent urban life with its diverse dialects, working class and immigrant culture, jazz soundtracks and even gay references.
Find the complete collection here