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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
2nd song is The Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian (title track)
Belle and Sebastian, a Scottish Band, was introduced to me by my boyfriend, BJ. I seriously thank the “divine” in paving way for me to find a partner who shares my taste for music. The band is closely associated to another band which we adore, Camera Obscura, as Murdoch, the lead vocalist, produced Camera’s debut album (now I have transformed to be an encyclopedia).
The Boy with the Arab Strap is another pretentious upbeat song that is entirely wistful. To attempt to interpret, defining an arab strap is necessary. It is actually a sexual device used for erection. To be more graphic, the strap is in a form or a ring usually metal or leather which is “wrapped” around the male genitalia.
It can be a song on homosexuality -the possible state of affairs of men/ boys (since there is a difference in the degree of power in the two words) that are physically/ spiritually confined in prison(literal and figurative). Social maladjustment happens when the time comes when they ( the imprisoned) are finally released (possibly by the society or by themselves). The song is truly a rich critique on societal prejudices.
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Real-life Grave of the Fireflies: (Photo) Stoic Japanese orphan, standing at attention having brought his dead younger brother to a cremation pyre, Nagasaki, by Joe O’Donnell 1945
This photograph was taken by an American photojournalist, Joe O’Donnell, in Nagasaki in 1945.
He recently spoke to a Japanese interviewer about this picture:
“I saw a boy about ten years old walking by. He was carrying a baby on his back. In those days in Japan, we often saw children playing with their little brothers or sisters on their backs, but this boy was clearly different. I could see that he had come to this place for a serious reason. He was wearing no shoes. His face was hard. The little head was tipped back as if the baby were fast asleep.
“The boy stood there for five or ten minutes. The men in white masks walked over to him and quietly began to take off the rope that was holding the baby. That is when I saw that the baby was already dead. The men held the body by the hands and feet and placed it on the fire.
“The boy stood there straight without moving, watching the flames. He was biting his lower lip so hard that it shone with blood. The flame burned low like the sun going down. The boy turned around and walked silently away.”
Joe O’Donnell died on August 9th, 2007
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