Musical Education

I can go to Bar Joao and hear people dj sometimes. My friend M was up. Alice Coltrane? Is that Alice Coltrane? I saw that tonight he brought only jazz records. Only Jazz?! A few weeks prior, I saw him at the same spot with a new purchase in a crispy new bag. I peeked inside to see a lone record sitting righteously inside: Pharoah Saunders. Nice. The point is, you can just play the music that you're feeling at the moment. This place lets you do that. Let me borrow these! I said to him. There is so much music out there. There is so much musical education to be had!

How long does it take to recognize a good tune? At least for this one it was somewhere in the milliseconds of putting the needle down. Pharoah Saunders' Love In Us All. You can hear the creative force flowing through the session, where the moment is paramount. The players camouflaged into the background, thier egolessness allowing the music to take center stage.

Good music, Good drinks. Head to Joao on Higashinotoin between Oike & Aneyakoji. Open 6:30 p.m. - 11 p.m. Mon.-Sat.

YES!

Watch out world.
It's been a long time comin' but a change has come.

Goin to the Gas Station

I was in cereal need of a dental check-up. My grandma keeps saying, there's nothing more important than your teeth! It's because lately she can't eat all the things she used to (nuts, crackers, and other unyeiling edibles) and it makes her sad to lose.

The were four people waiting in front of me as i filled out the form for first-timers. What is the purpose of your visit? How do you say check-up in Japanese?

Usually, when I went to the dentist, It took awhile, even for just a cleaning: Poke around with pointy hook instrument, scrape nooks and crannies, run circular motions with automated rubbery cleaning tool over every tooth, choose a flouride flavor... one hour. But the four before me were in and out in twenty minutes. I was lead into a room with three chairs lined up extremely close to one another. There were no walls or curtains separating me from my neighbor. And then the dentist shined his rickety arm-light onto my face and jammed his obnoxious gloved fingers into my mouth and I felt strangely violated. Heyyyy, this is a very personal space!

Anyway, i got my teefs cleaned but it felt more like ground and sanded and i saw plaque literally fly out to the east and west. It was all very rough and fast -this dremmel rattling my whole dome, reminding me of the fact that my teeth were a part of my head, stuck into my skull.

Alrightie. No cavities. Next!

wtf

today my grandmother said that if i get married by the time i'm 30 she'll give me 1000,000 yen.

Pssst...

Recently I was introduced to some covert establishments in this maze of basements, multiple floors, and alleyways. Elephant Factory Coffee is for a day when you want to explore by yourself and dig into that book in your bag. The simple décor is the backdrop to help you notice all the enlightened details- the grain of the wood tables, the green of the plants in the window, the glass of the display cases, the shine of the coffee pot, the depth of the coffee and, the perfectly square slightly lemony of the cheesecake. And Black Ark Records is for you serious reggae-loving, 45-collecting, spend-10,000-yen-on-a-record persons. A whole different flavor from afore mentioned coffee shop. It’s homegrown and hand-drawn. Graffiti and dust, kooky but endearing ornaments, and cardboard box after cardboard fishburger box of 7 inches in their white paper sleeves.

If you seek, you shall find. Or have a friend take you, and pass it on. But in a whisper ‘k?

Listen to Beyonce

I love Beyonce. I find myself goin’ mmmhmmmm girl like every time. Because I think it’s hard to be a woman no joke sometimes (especially in Japan) and sorry to go into corn-ball zone but she reminds us how to be a strong beautiful ladies, you know? But actually, uh, she just dances real good. Like this video gets me juiced! All the single ladies put your hands up oh oh oh!

What Cool Breezes Do

It’s hella cold these days and I don’t want to get out from under the covers.
But eventually I have to and I imagine the stale sleep-air hovering heavy in my apartment. So even when its freezing outside I still gotta throw open the doors and windows. Bddrrrat! Bddrrrat! And then I imagine the air exhaled from the trees and green outside sweeping through and lifting the sleepy, dusty, cigarette-smoky all off carrying it away. Ahhhh. When friends come to visit this is how it is.

Theme music into 2009

Here is Radiohead covering Portishead
And here is Gnarls Barkley covering Radiohead
Holy gut-wrenching sea of melancholic joy!

Happy New Year