Open Your Minds. Vote for a New Way of Thinking. Vote Obama.

Hire someone who wants to tackle the issues of housing, jobs, health care, and education. John McCain is too wealthy and too pampered and too privileged to give a damn about the average American. Joe the Plumber is a foot soldier for McCain to order around. He means well but he [...]

W.—-It’s Gonna Happen Again. Because Americans Just Don’t Learn

The last 8 years have been like a train wreck.  All we can do is just stop and stare.  And let it happen again.  God have mercy on us.
 

Republican Convention: Party of Lincoln Ready to Lead America Backwards to Dividing Lines of the Civil War

The Republican People wave the American flag like it’s the Confederate Flag. They wave the flag and act how much more patriotic and how much more American they are than you and I. The Republican People are desperate. Those at the convention looked like men and women from a religious compound from which they cannot [...]

Okinawa, Mon Amour

“Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959) is a terrific film by Alain Resnais, the French filmmaker who was well known for his documentary filmmaking skills. The film came out in 1959 at a time when military planes were carrying nuclear payload 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After I watched this movie I began to [...]

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Part I

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston talks about her book “Firehorse Woman” with Frederick W. Marrazzo in 2004.  The story covers three generations of Japanese American women. The story starts in Hiroshima, Japan, where the first atomic bomb was dropped, and makes its way to United States.  Jeanne is also the co-author of the masterpiece “Farewell to Manzanar”, which [...]

Kumejima, Okinawa Youth Day Music Video

 A middle school on the little island of Kume, Okinawa was celebrating Youth Day when I was there in 2002. I try to synch these images with a neat pop song from Aly & AJ called “Rush”.  

An Interview with Frederik L. Schodt: Part I

Author and Japanese manga expert Frederik L. Schodt talks with Frederick W. Marrazzo about manga, anime, Osamu Tezuka and a host of other issues surrounding Japanese popular culture.  With classic modesty, he says that he doesn’t pretend to know everything about manga, but I wouldn’t bet on it.  Schodt’s latest book is “The Astro Boy Essays”, a [...]

Thank You, Comrade McClellan! The People Are Listening to What You Need to Say

But aren’t you a little late to be blowing your whistle so long after the fact? Did you suddenly come to your senses when you popped out of the “Bush in Wonderland” world you people were living in at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Do you think that this memoir will restore honor somewhere? Maybe it will [...]

An Interview with Firoozeh Dumas: Part I

Frederick W. Marrazzo interviewed Firoozeh Dumas about her memoir “Funny in Farsi” in 2004.  Here Firoozeh talks about what it was like to come to the United States from Iran in the 1970s.  She tells a humorous story of cultural misunderstandings that make you think differently about Iran and its people.
 

Haiku-Inspiring Koto Performance: “Final Flight”

This koto performance took place on April 12, 2008 at the San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown.  Enjoy.