Brad Warner's Hardcore Zen: The Three G-Men

I’m back from Japan now. While I was over there I got to meet three Godzillas at the same time. Here’s how.

OK. My friend Norman England, an ex-pat who’s lived in Japan even longer than I did, and who made a great, fantastic, wonderful, funny, poignant film called The iDol (that’s how he spells it), which has yet to find a distributor because all the people who distribute movies are too moronic to know how good it is even though it totally kicks the asses of everything in the theaters nowadays, just like my movie Cleveland’s Screaming, which is also without a distributor… Uh, where was I? Oh yeah, Norman is making a documentary about the people who make Japanese monster movies. This is being produced by another couple friends of mine, Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski. As part of the film, Norman managed to get the three main guys who wore the Godzilla costume all together in one spot for the first time ever in history. As ridiculous as it sounds, not even the Japanese documentary makers had ever managed to get the three of them together all at one time.

The interview was to take place at Monsters, the workshop of Shinichi Wakasa, the dude who built the monster costumes for several of the recent Godzilla movies. Wakasa and I have been friends for a few years so I got invited to come see his interview. I had no idea, though, that the three “G-Men,” as the guys who played Godzilla are referred to as in Japan, would be there. So when I arrived I was pretty shocked to see Haruo Nakajima, who played Godzilla from the first movie up till 1972’s Godzilla Vs. Gigan, Kenpachiro Satsuma, who played Godzilla in most of the 90’s films, and Tsutomu Kitagawa, who played Godzilla from the turn of the century until the supposedly final G-film, Godzilla Final Wars in twenty-ought-four, all sitting around a table in back smoking and chatting. Naturally I had to get a picture with all of them together, so here it is:

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I’ve been a fan of Godzilla movies since I was a wee lad, and that, as much as my interest in Zen and my interest in getting a job that paid a living wage, is what led me to Japan back in 1994. So it was way cool to get to be a part of this historic meeting. It is also what led me to be part of other non-historic meetings like the one I wrote about last week. The advice given by Miake in the comments section is extremely good for anyone working with a normal Japanese company. The folks I work for, though, happen to be a little special. I ended the week still not having a clear idea what was going on. But at least they gave me a little form they want me to turn in every week. So that’s a start, I guess.

The world is shrinking rapidly. As cliché as that sounds, it happens to be true. We’re all having to deal with cultures foreign to our own. My Zen teacher, Gudo Nishijima, is pretty jazzed about this. He sees the United States as the model for the emerging new world society. I know a lot of people chafe at hearing statements like that, as I did when I first heard him say it. But I think he’s probably right, reluctant as I sometimes am to admit it. The USA is a kind of historical experiment, a thoroughly culturally and linguistically mixed society. As communication and travel become cheaper, easier and more effective, the barriers that once separated different human cultures are breaking down. Like it or not — and some people really hate it a whole lot — it won’t be long until there is just one single unified human culture. There will always be local variations, but the idea of truly separate cultures is dissolving before our eyes.

When I was over in Japan I picked up a DVD of a film called The Last War (Sekai Dai Senso). In 1961, Eiji Tsuburaya, special effects director for the classic Godzilla movies of the Fifties and Sixties, directed the effects on this very serious look at what World War III might be like. It’s a very downbeat film. Though the special effects are pretty primitive by today’s standards, they’re also surprisingly effective at conveying the real horror that the Cold War could have unleashed had it turned suddenly hot.

As scary as some of the shit that’s going on in the world today now is, I remain very optimistic about our future. We are certainly going to do a lot of stupid things from now until the day we finally get tired of making each other so miserable all the time. But it’s far less likely that we’re going to wipe out our entire species in a matter of minutes as seemed highly probable until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I happen to believe that Buddhism will play a major role in unifying our disparate cultures. We may have to abandon the name “Buddhism” at some point to avoid offending those who are easily offended by such things. But real Buddhism is not a religion or a sect. It is simply realistic philosophy itself. Buddhists must believe only in reality and must hold no views that contradict what is true. Anyone from any culture or any religion who can accept what is real can learn to live a better life. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to make realism the over-riding philosophy of the human race. But I do not doubt that it will happen, even if I do doubt I’ll live to see it.

Anyway, whatever. I’m just psyched I got to meet three Godzillas in one day.

Here’s some of the places I’m gonna be in the coming weeks:

I’ll be on the Suicide Girls Radio Show TOMORROW May 20th. So listen up, motherhumpers!

I'll be in the June issue of LA YOGA magazine.

An excerpt from my new book SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP! will appear in WHOLE LIFE TIMES magazine in June as well. They're affiliated with CONSCIOUS CHOICE magazine in Chicago and Seattle, and with COMMON GROUND magazine in San Francisco.

On May 23rd I'll be a guest on a radio show called THE GOOD LIFE with host JESSE DYLAN at 10:15 Pacific Time/1:15 Eastern. That's on Sirius Sattelite Radio.

Saturday June 2nd, 2007 at 7 PM I'll be in Phoenix at the ARIZONA ZEN BUDDHIST SOCIETY.

On Sunday June 3, 2007 at 1 pm Barnes & Noble Desert Ridge - 21001 N. Tatum Blvd. - Phoenix, AZ
On Monday June 4, 2007 at 7 pm Changing Hands Bookstore - 6428 South McClintock Dr. - Tempe, AZ

Tuesday June 12th at 6PM at the VIRGIN MEGASTORE in San Francisco
Thursday June 14th, 7PM at GATEWAYS in Santa Cruz
Friday June 15th After Dinner Talk at the SAN FRANCISCO ZEN CENTER
Saturday June 16th 7 PM at COPPERFIELD'S BOOKS 140 Kentucky St., Petaluma, CA 94952
Sunday June 17th at San Quentin Prison (this isn't open to the public, but all inmates reading this are invited!)

AND on Wednesday July 25th, 2007, my movie CLEVELAND'S SCREAMING! will have its world premier at the EGYPTIAN THEATER in Hollywood. So mark your calendars!

Plus, the very first record by my old hardcore band 0DFx (Zero Defex) has just been released by Get Revenge Records. This 7 inch vinyl record contains our 1983 demo tape full of thrashin’ Minor Threat/Negative approach style hardcore with a drop of psychedelia thrown in for good measure. Get yours today!

Brad Warner is the author of Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up!. He maintains a blog about Buddhist stuff. If you're in Southern California and you want to try some Zazen for yourself, he has a group that meets every Saturday in Santa Monica.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/culture/21366/Brad-Warners-Hardcore-Zen-The-Three-G-Men/