Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Damo Suzuki's Network (Nagoya)
A couple weeks ago I went to see Damo Suzuki's Network play in Nagoya. Damo is an ex-member of the '70s German prog-rock juggernaut CAN. He's now on what he calls the Never Ending World Tour.
Damo travels alone to cities all over the world, and he has a revolving cast of musicians improvise behind him. In each city, he assembles a band of local musicians. Thus, every night is new and slightly or maybe even extremely different.
His show in Nagoya consisted of Hiroshi Higashi (Synthesizer), Makoto Kawabata (Guitar), Atsushi Tsuyama (Bass) all members of the Acid Mothers Temple. As well as local Zen musician Kei (Guitar) with pal Ryoko Ono (Sax), and Taiqui (Drums).
I've been messing around with YouTube a lot recently, so I decided to post this short clip from the show.
Enjoy the noize!
Friday, March 17, 2006
Asama 2000
Last weekend I went with my friends Jason and Mark to a ski resort in Nagano Prefecture called Asama 2000, due to its two thousand meter elevation.
Check out the photo gallery here: Asama 2000 Gallery
We stayed in a Japanese style, onsen hotel called Takemine, located on the top of the ski resort. The only way to get there was to take a snow-cat from the parking lot or ski in. After we arrived, everyone changed into the comfortable yukatta's provided for us, and we went to eat dinner in the dining hall.
The hotel served Japanese carp in a variety of different ways. I'd never eaten carp before, and I was shocked at how good it was.
After dinner, we returned to our room for a three-dimensional sound experiment. We played the Flaming Lips' Zaireeka album using two iPods, each connected to an iFusion speaker setup, and two iBooks, each connected to an external speaker set-up. For one night, we had the best stereo on the planet!
The next day we woke up, put our iPods in our pockets, walked out into a blizzard, and went cross-country skiing across a 3km cat track. At the end of the cat track, we strapped on a pair of snowshoes and went trooping through the woods like the March of the Rotten Vegetables.
Eventually, we decided to dig a snow cave. We managed to hollow out a deep snowdrift that provided us shelter for lunch. After eating, we went back outside and noticed all our tracks were snowed over. It took us some time to find our way back to the cat track, but we did it.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off in front of a mirror to have some fun with our cameras.
Pure silliness. Believe it or not, that was the music I was listening to at the time.
All jokes aside, that night I ate one of the best meals of my life; carp sashimi, carp in a kind of sweet miso soup, nabe, tsukemono, fish paste served with a shiso leaf, and a few bottles of atsukan.
Our last day, we woke up to beautiful sunshine and went snowboarding all morning before catching a 3pm snow-cat back down the mountain.
At the end, I concluded that any time Jason, Mark, and I get together hilarity ensues.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Jushiyama JHS Graduation
Last week I attended a graduation ceremony at Jushiyama Junior High School.
Check out the photo gallery here: Jushiyama Graduation Ceremony
It was a bittersweet occasion. I taught these students for four years starting when they were 5th grade at elementary school. I have many fond memories with them; for example, these students wrote letters to my uncle when he was sick, and in return as thank you notes, they received baby pictures of me from my father.
I was very proud to watch them walk and receive their diplomas, but the event also marked the end of my tenure at this school. From April, the town of Jushiyama will merge with a neighboring city, so my contract with the local BOE will be lost.
I enjoyed myself here immensely, but it's time to start moving on...
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
BBC NEWS | Africa | Obituary: Ali Farka Toure
BBC NEWS | Africa | Obituary: Ali Farka Toure:
Ali Farka Toure, known as the "Bluesman of Africa", who has died of cancer, was one of the continent's best known musicians.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
BBC NEWS | Americas | Simpsons 'trump' First Amendment
BBC NEWS | Americas | Simpsons 'trump' First AmendmentAmericans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment, an opinion poll says.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Heaven & Hell
Less than 24 hours after returning from Hokkaido & Aomori, the mental and physical top of the world, I've descended into one of Dante's icy hells.
My first night back in town I was driving in the rain to a friend's house for dinner. On the way, a Toyota Crown stopped suddenly in front of me; I hit the brakes, and skid into it.
The driver jumped out of the bruised car, stormed up to my door, and proceeded to yell at me in incomprehensible Japanese as I asked him if everybody was all right. The only bright side of the situation was the shock on his face when he realized I was a foreigner; then he started yelling again.
To complicate matters worse, there's been a miscommunication with my insurance company. Evidentially, they still have me insured for a car I threw away over eight months ago. Because of this conundrum, they're telling me I can't use my insurance policy.
Now, I have an irate Japanese redneck pretending he hurt his hip in the accident calling me several times a day demanding he get compensated for his car and hospital bills and a Japanese auto insurance company who I've been paying money to for three years telling me they're not gonna cover me.
If that's not enough, I had to teach twenty-eight English lessons last week as my penance for taking time off to go to Hokkaido and Aomori.
Dear God... have mercy on a poor soul that just got back from vacation and looked down for a split second to turn the Stones up on his car stereo.
My first night back in town I was driving in the rain to a friend's house for dinner. On the way, a Toyota Crown stopped suddenly in front of me; I hit the brakes, and skid into it.
The driver jumped out of the bruised car, stormed up to my door, and proceeded to yell at me in incomprehensible Japanese as I asked him if everybody was all right. The only bright side of the situation was the shock on his face when he realized I was a foreigner; then he started yelling again.
To complicate matters worse, there's been a miscommunication with my insurance company. Evidentially, they still have me insured for a car I threw away over eight months ago. Because of this conundrum, they're telling me I can't use my insurance policy.
Now, I have an irate Japanese redneck pretending he hurt his hip in the accident calling me several times a day demanding he get compensated for his car and hospital bills and a Japanese auto insurance company who I've been paying money to for three years telling me they're not gonna cover me.
If that's not enough, I had to teach twenty-eight English lessons last week as my penance for taking time off to go to Hokkaido and Aomori.
Dear God... have mercy on a poor soul that just got back from vacation and looked down for a split second to turn the Stones up on his car stereo.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Powdertopia 2006
I meant to get this post up about my snowboarding trip to Hokkaido and Aomori much sooner, but last week was really busy.
Powdertopia is an annual snowboard/ski trip organized by JET teachers. This year my friend Tyler organized everything and invited me to come along. It was an offer I could not refuse.
I took a slow ferry up to Hokkaido and met everyone at the lodge. We had four tremendous days in Hirafu Village. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted some of the best pictures of the trip, but some managed to survive.
Check out the photo gallery here: Powdertopia 2006 Pt. 1: Niseko, Hokkaido
The second part of Powdertopia took place in Aomori Prefecture at Mt. Hakkoda. Our group members changed around a little bit, but it was just a continuation of the same kind of fun. We had three days on Mt. Hakkoda and stayed in a great lodge called Sansou.
Check out the photos from Aomori here: Powdertopia 2006 Pt. 2: Mt. Hakkoda
Monday, February 06, 2006
Heiwa English School: ABC's
All of my classes at Heiwa English School are named after fish. I dubbed this group of 1st Grade girls my Jellyfish Class.
They've been studying with me every Thursday afternoon since June, and they recently finished learning all the letters of the alphabet.
To commemorate the occasion, they decided they wanted to spell the entire alphabet on the floor of my school using only their bodies.
I had nothing to do with this. They orchestrated it completely by themselves, and my only role was to document it with photographs.
Please check out this adorable gallery here: Body Alphabet Gallery
It's precious.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Suzume
Last weekend was relaxing and fulfilling.
Check out the photo gallery here: Good Eats
Saturday was one of those days when everything just worked out perfectly. My buddy Ethan and his friend Takeshi came to my house just before 10am. We had a cup of coffee and then drove down to Seibu Elementary School for a mochi festival.
I used to work in Seibu Elementary School last year, but it'd been a while since I was there. The kids were happy to see us and we got pound rice into malleable putty… then eat it.
On our way back to my house, we stopped off at my friend Fumio's place to pick up a small gas range stove. He served us a nice ramen lunch; we grabbed the stove and were on our way.
Next, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some fixin's for a Japanese Nabe. We bumped into my elder purple haired neighbor named Kato-san who walked us through the store and instructed us on the best ingredients to buy. She even advised us not to buy certain veggies because she had them growing in her garden patch next to my house.
After buying some beer, we got back to my house and Kato-san was waiting for us. She took us into her garden and started unearthing a bunch of daikon, carrots, & green onions.
That night a few more friends showed up and we cooked a tasty vegetable soup flavored with Korean kimchi, drank a bottle of Imo-shochu, listened to records, played cards, & tried to watch Blade Runner before passing out.
Sunday, my buddy Jason showed up and we went into Nagoya for a night of food and fun. We had dinner at a dirty yakitori-ya named Kadoya where my other friend Toku ordered every part of the chicken most Americans never eat. Liver, ligaments, intestines… hell, he even ordered suzume which is a small Japanese sparrow served on a skewer with it’s head still attached.
Last, but not least, we saw an insane Japanese band called Turtle Island. Their name sounds like some relaxing beach resort, but their music was quite the opposite. It was part jam part punk part p-funk and all aggressive! The band consisted of about 14 members (mostly drummers) while the crowd was full of black leather jackets, mohawks, and crowd surfers.
Check out the video: Turtle Island
Absolutely nutz.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Photocast
This is my new photocast: heyhey's photocast
It's a new concept to me, so I'm not exactly sure how it's gonna work, but supposedly anyone that has an RSS reader can subscribe to this photo stream and view my pictures whenever I update them.
For Mac users, my photos should appear in your iPhoto Library.
For Windows users, an RSS reader is required. Bloglines seems to be a quick and easy way to subscribe to RSS feeds.
If anyone gets this working or has some problems with it, please let me hear from you. Like I said, this is new to me, but it's got great potential for sharing photos with family and friends.
It's a new concept to me, so I'm not exactly sure how it's gonna work, but supposedly anyone that has an RSS reader can subscribe to this photo stream and view my pictures whenever I update them.
For Mac users, my photos should appear in your iPhoto Library.
For Windows users, an RSS reader is required. Bloglines seems to be a quick and easy way to subscribe to RSS feeds.
If anyone gets this working or has some problems with it, please let me hear from you. Like I said, this is new to me, but it's got great potential for sharing photos with family and friends.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Recent Viewing
I recently saw a couple really interesting documentaries that I believe are worth checking out.
The first, Why We Fight, came to my attention after seeing it mentioned on the Daily Show. The Internet Movie Database describes it as so:
In President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961 he said: "In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Director Eugene Jarecki's documentary, Why We Fight, examines America's relationship with the privatized military corporations of today and how they influence American foreign and domestic policy. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at last year's Sundance Film Festival Why We Fight includes interviews with John McCain, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, and Gore Vidal.
The second, The Future of Food, was recommended by my friend Daniel in a very funny email message. Evidently, he made contact with the writer/director Deborah Koons Garcia who was once married to Jerry Garcia.
The IMDB describes this one as:
An in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade.
Both these movies will incite debate into the current state of affairs inside the USA and hopefully get people thinking.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Sayonara Parties
These are pictures are from the last couple days of my brother Darrell, his girlfriend Stephanie, and my cousin Stuart's trip to Japan.
Check out the photo album here:
http://homepage.mac.com/heyheygig/PhotoAlbum22.html
It was great having them here, and I hope they had as much fun as I did.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
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