Melt-Banana: Being 'stupid' isn't so bad when it comes to touring | The Japan Times
This is a fantastic interview with Melt-Banana. As a veteran of playing shows for no people myself, it's fun to read about their early days with four people up front, or playing mostly for the venue's owner and the other bands on the bill. They've been hardcore tour monsters for so long, I imagine they have thousands of anecdotes stored up about shows large and small. With their newest album, "Fetch," now available and another North American tour in the offing, it's time to take another look at one of my favorite bands courtesy Yako, Agata and interviewer Ian Martin.
Their dedication, motivations and laser focus come across quite well in this chat. The 3/11 earthquake/tsunami rattled them, just as it did everyone, but here they come again. I'm going to miss Rika bouncing away in front of her amp (this interview is the first I've read that actively engages her absence at any length), but we've all come this far together and there's no point in backing out now, with all this challenging new music on the way. I'm one of those fans in favor of bands evolving their sound and trying new things, and from what I've heard so far, "Fetch" is something special.
Oh, and their basic niceness. When you feel like you have to play to those four people because they came out specifically to see you, that's nice. I've seen this in action firsthand in my few, brief interactions with them at shows, although I'm way too shy to ask for a photo or any of that jazz. Just seeing Yako talk to a couple of late-arriving fans and put them on the list so they could get into a sold-out show even though the entire thing grew out of a misunderstanding with the door guy remains a highlight and all I did was stand nearby and watch as it happened. They also take the time to "like" even my lame comments on their Facebook feed.
They are nice.
Usually I spend October blogging about Japanese monsters and ghosts, but this year October features two holidays. One is the "Fetch" release date-- my copy should be heading my way as I type-- and the other is our more traditional, end-of-the-month horror fest. We'll be dealing with "Fetch" as soon as it gets here and then we'll visit some haunted houses or invite ghosts into our apartment for a little talk.
Showing posts with label Japan Times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan Times. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
JET alumni: Advocates for Japan | The Japan Times
JET alumni: Advocates for Japan | The Japan Times
I don't know how effective the JET program is in its mission to increase English proficiency here in Japan. Seriously. I'm not about to knock the JET program. I'm just telling you I haven't looked at any figures on its effectiveness. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must believe in it, since he's planning to expand the program.
Good idea? Bad idea? My gut feeling is-- and I'm writing this as an English teacher in Japan with an admitted bias-- it's a very good idea. Let others debate with stats and quotes. On a day-to-day basis, the teachers I work with and I knock ourselves out to put lessons across and get kids speaking and understanding English. It's in my nature to hope for and expect similar situations at other schools where these JETs will work. Most importantly, I'm simply in favor of people in all countries learning (or trying to learn, even in a half-assed way) second, third or even fourth languages. Language learning in general is a positive thing. If nothing else, it teaches you to appreciate how lucky you are to have natural abilities in your native language. And I advocate to any young person interested in doing so to give Japan a try for a year.
Check these guys out in the link above. It's fun reading about people who came over, had a ball, then went back, did a few things only to return to Japan in another capacity. The people in this Japan Times article about JET alumni are success stories, and that's fun, too.
I think Japan is a fine place to live. I came over with a big conversation school chain that shall remain nameless, but I flirted with the JET program. The reason I didn't apply to be a JET is simple-- I missed the deadline and I didn't want to wait another year for the next one. I found a faster way. Within six months I had a working visa and a job in Japan and I've been here on and off ever since. My experiences here have been overwhelmingly positive. Maybe I've lived a charmed existence.
At the very least, it can't hurt to look into the JET program and decide for yourself if it's something to do.
I don't know how effective the JET program is in its mission to increase English proficiency here in Japan. Seriously. I'm not about to knock the JET program. I'm just telling you I haven't looked at any figures on its effectiveness. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must believe in it, since he's planning to expand the program.
Good idea? Bad idea? My gut feeling is-- and I'm writing this as an English teacher in Japan with an admitted bias-- it's a very good idea. Let others debate with stats and quotes. On a day-to-day basis, the teachers I work with and I knock ourselves out to put lessons across and get kids speaking and understanding English. It's in my nature to hope for and expect similar situations at other schools where these JETs will work. Most importantly, I'm simply in favor of people in all countries learning (or trying to learn, even in a half-assed way) second, third or even fourth languages. Language learning in general is a positive thing. If nothing else, it teaches you to appreciate how lucky you are to have natural abilities in your native language. And I advocate to any young person interested in doing so to give Japan a try for a year.
Check these guys out in the link above. It's fun reading about people who came over, had a ball, then went back, did a few things only to return to Japan in another capacity. The people in this Japan Times article about JET alumni are success stories, and that's fun, too.
I think Japan is a fine place to live. I came over with a big conversation school chain that shall remain nameless, but I flirted with the JET program. The reason I didn't apply to be a JET is simple-- I missed the deadline and I didn't want to wait another year for the next one. I found a faster way. Within six months I had a working visa and a job in Japan and I've been here on and off ever since. My experiences here have been overwhelmingly positive. Maybe I've lived a charmed existence.
At the very least, it can't hurt to look into the JET program and decide for yourself if it's something to do.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Why not mix performance and cooking?
DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan raps and roasts on 'Mother's Food' | The Japan Times
While I'm generally against making generalizations (oh gosh, what a clever lad am I!), if I had to make one about Japan, it's that this is a food-obsessed country. Or maybe I'm the food-obsessed one so I notice all the TV shows about cooking and eating and that's skewed my perspective, along with an appreciation of acts like Shonen Knife and Cibo Matto who made their initial impressions on me by singing about food.
What I'm struck by when reading about DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan isn't so much the name of her act-- which translates to "miso soup" and either "rice" or simply "meal" or "food," it's the chances of an actual cooking demonstration breaking out at her gigs. And that her raps consist of recipes. Rather than simply celebrating the pleasures of food, DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan says, "I just want to make people want to cook."
The emphasis on the second want comes directly from The Japan Times, but I see this concept as the logical extension of food-based songcraft. Rather than put out cook books, perhaps it's time for someone like her to put out cook albums.
Someone call the Food Network. They seem to have an opening right now.
While I'm generally against making generalizations (oh gosh, what a clever lad am I!), if I had to make one about Japan, it's that this is a food-obsessed country. Or maybe I'm the food-obsessed one so I notice all the TV shows about cooking and eating and that's skewed my perspective, along with an appreciation of acts like Shonen Knife and Cibo Matto who made their initial impressions on me by singing about food.
What I'm struck by when reading about DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan isn't so much the name of her act-- which translates to "miso soup" and either "rice" or simply "meal" or "food," it's the chances of an actual cooking demonstration breaking out at her gigs. And that her raps consist of recipes. Rather than simply celebrating the pleasures of food, DJ Miso Shiru and MC Gohan says, "I just want to make people want to cook."
The emphasis on the second want comes directly from The Japan Times, but I see this concept as the logical extension of food-based songcraft. Rather than put out cook books, perhaps it's time for someone like her to put out cook albums.
Someone call the Food Network. They seem to have an opening right now.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
One of the strange effects of an aging Japan
Hey kids, keep it down — graying Japan annoyed by children's noise | The Japan Times
Noise, noise, noise! You can grumble that and sound like the Grinch atop Mount Crumpit all you want, but the simple fact is, Japan needs more kids. And kids mean noise. I'm extremely noise-sensitive myself, but even so I enjoy hearing the kids playing in the park across the street and coming and going. They shriek and giggle or shout in earnestness whatever the heck it is they're shouting.
Japan is a noisy place anyway. As the Japan Times article mentions, there are political trucks and cars every election season-- which, in Japan, is about every two weeks-- loudly thanking you for support even if you don't plan to support them, the crooning guy selling baked sweet potatoes, video screens broadcasting commercials and movie trailers and all kinds of musical street crossing signals and warnings and beeps and boops. Vending machines talk to you, our gas heating control panel in the shower talks to my wife and me whenever we change the temperature, we have a small Oto-san figure that spouts gruff fatherly phrases in Japanese whenever we activate it.
And while a squalling infant in a restaurant can drive me nuts, I find it amusing people might single out the noises children make out of this endless cacophony. As long as the kids in the park are happy and not killing each other, then I'm fine with hearing them. I guess that's the American in me.
Noise, noise, noise! You can grumble that and sound like the Grinch atop Mount Crumpit all you want, but the simple fact is, Japan needs more kids. And kids mean noise. I'm extremely noise-sensitive myself, but even so I enjoy hearing the kids playing in the park across the street and coming and going. They shriek and giggle or shout in earnestness whatever the heck it is they're shouting.
Japan is a noisy place anyway. As the Japan Times article mentions, there are political trucks and cars every election season-- which, in Japan, is about every two weeks-- loudly thanking you for support even if you don't plan to support them, the crooning guy selling baked sweet potatoes, video screens broadcasting commercials and movie trailers and all kinds of musical street crossing signals and warnings and beeps and boops. Vending machines talk to you, our gas heating control panel in the shower talks to my wife and me whenever we change the temperature, we have a small Oto-san figure that spouts gruff fatherly phrases in Japanese whenever we activate it.
And while a squalling infant in a restaurant can drive me nuts, I find it amusing people might single out the noises children make out of this endless cacophony. As long as the kids in the park are happy and not killing each other, then I'm fine with hearing them. I guess that's the American in me.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Tough guys don't dance... and apparently, neither does anyone else in Japan these days
Well, not exactly. This is the first I've heard of this-- the police in Tokyo are cracking down on laws that make it illegal to dance after midnight. Not just in Tokyo. Read the article and the comments on the Japan Times website: What's with the police purge on dance clubs? - The Japan Times. Then come back here for a moment or two and let me bore you half to death with a few words on the subject.
Like the appendix, the little toe or network television, these laws are vestigial remants of the past. I'm sure they served a purpose at one time. Now they serve another and you can decide for yourself whether that purpose is over-reaction or a necessary measure. This concerns me because I like to hit live venues from time to time. And while I haven't been to a dance club in Japan in quite a while-- mostly because I haven't found one to my particular liking-- I hate to think the actions of a few will have such a negative impact on what's largely good, clean fun. You know, dancing all night. Clubbing, but not that kind that involves grievous bodily harm.
Actually, I'm not sure such a crackdown will have a chilling effect on the live music scene in Japan. Most shows I've been to start around 7pm and everyone's out the door well before midnight. Unless you're the kind of hardcore clubber who doesn't mind missing that last train-- the kind of person who stays out all night until the sun comes up-- you probably won't notice much difference.
It's just these scenes frequently overlap with other avenues of artistic expression like art itself or fashion, the kinds of things that have made Cool Japan a worldwide phenomenon. Without the mingling of visual and musical arts, we probably wouldn't have had the Harajuku style scene. I wonder, too, what effect this crackdown might have on those kids who like to practice their hip-hop moves in front of reflective store windows late at night. I'm guessing kids still do that, or breakdance on the sidewalks after all the daytime pedestrians have gone home. These are the things that define younger Japan across the globe.
You'd think there would be a way to put the onus on those who really are troublemakers and criminals without criminalizing a bunch of young people out for fun. Maybe that's just too much trouble.
Like the appendix, the little toe or network television, these laws are vestigial remants of the past. I'm sure they served a purpose at one time. Now they serve another and you can decide for yourself whether that purpose is over-reaction or a necessary measure. This concerns me because I like to hit live venues from time to time. And while I haven't been to a dance club in Japan in quite a while-- mostly because I haven't found one to my particular liking-- I hate to think the actions of a few will have such a negative impact on what's largely good, clean fun. You know, dancing all night. Clubbing, but not that kind that involves grievous bodily harm.
Actually, I'm not sure such a crackdown will have a chilling effect on the live music scene in Japan. Most shows I've been to start around 7pm and everyone's out the door well before midnight. Unless you're the kind of hardcore clubber who doesn't mind missing that last train-- the kind of person who stays out all night until the sun comes up-- you probably won't notice much difference.
It's just these scenes frequently overlap with other avenues of artistic expression like art itself or fashion, the kinds of things that have made Cool Japan a worldwide phenomenon. Without the mingling of visual and musical arts, we probably wouldn't have had the Harajuku style scene. I wonder, too, what effect this crackdown might have on those kids who like to practice their hip-hop moves in front of reflective store windows late at night. I'm guessing kids still do that, or breakdance on the sidewalks after all the daytime pedestrians have gone home. These are the things that define younger Japan across the globe.
You'd think there would be a way to put the onus on those who really are troublemakers and criminals without criminalizing a bunch of young people out for fun. Maybe that's just too much trouble.
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