Come on. Really?: A Not-So-Dasai Thanksgiving

So, this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/arts/design/25murakami.html

Murakami (no the other one) is going to have floats of his two signature characters, Kaikai and Kiki in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. What surprises me most of all about this is that I was kind of under the impression that people were getting a little tired of Murakami. I'm not aware of any of his major pieces being reported as going for very much at auction since that lasso and jumprope set were on the block a few years ago. Hasn't superflat come and gone? 

Of course, the majority of the viewers of the parade will not recognize the giant, inflatable incarnations of Murakami's creepy/cute mascots. However, Robin Hall, the producer of the parade, says the rule is "whether the kids understand it or not? Will the kids like it?" And who knows. With the stuff kids watch these days (I'm thinking specifically about Flapjack and Adventure Time) I don't think that superflat, especially in so mild an incarnation, will be as shocking to them as it would be to their parents' generation. The mixing of cute and grotesque is something that they see everyday. Even Spongebob pushes in that direction every once in a while.

A mild incarnation

Murakami himself will be accompanying the floats in a "flower costume of his own design."

"his own design" 

So what is it to Murakami to appear in the parade? For a pop artist, is this the highest you can achieve? Should Warhol have had a giant floating soup can/Marilyn Monroe/Chairman Mao? Where does this put Murakami's work in relation to other characters appearing in the parade like, say, Spongebob or Snoopy? Consider: though Macy's sought to work with Murakami in 2005, it was he who initiated contact for this parade cycle. With collaborations with Louis Vuitton and Casio, maybe Murakami has become simply a brand. As a self-affirmed pop artist, there might be nothing wrong with that. Are parade floats the epitome of branding? (maybe?) Whether it is or not, it's "art" in one of the most public forums available.

Pop culture is doing weird things this week. Another artist that Murakami has done work for/with in the past, Kanye West, dropped his latest album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy," on monday.

Kanye's 2007 "Graduation," with his (at the time) signature bear with Murakami's (still) signature aesthetic

Kanye's newest album. Note the difference.

Pitchfork gave it 10.0. The last album they gave a ten was, what, Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"? Pitchfork is the notoriously snobbish review house that the Onion lampooned as reviewing music as a whole, and giving it a 6.8. The album sounds very different from much of Kanye's earlier works. Whether it's worthy of a perfect 10 or not, it's a very good album and it's clear that he's come a long way in those three long years that separate it from "Graduation." 

Kanye has moved. Has Murakami?