Oh man!!

Oh man!! I haven't listened to Rage in soo long!!

The sounds of my childhood...

The Town I Live In Is Lonely

Not really, I just really like that song.

Listened to a Chicano oldies mix I made a long, long time ago last night and whoa, yeah, Chicano, that'ssss what I am...huh? Forgot some of the deeper emotions and feelings it brings out. That plus seeing an old car with a "Chicano" license plate on a friend's facebook profile. How can a big collection of metal do that? Of course, it's not just that...it's the memories and emotions associated with it, but now I'm just kind of putting out a bunch of thoughts and images from my mind in an attempt to make it into a blog post. I guess I could just forgo the blog post pretense and that would be better, though. Hm.

^
|
I

(Little Anthony & The Imperials ~ Tears On My Pillow)
(Thee Midniters ~ Everybody Needs Somebody to Love)

!

Holy sh*t, Lady Gaga totally rips off pachuca style at the end of the music video for Lovegame! Haha, why is my first response to seeing that kind of thing so defensive, when really it's not such a terrible thing? I'd like to get over that. What kind of dreams are caused by watching lots of Lady Gaga music videos in a row and then reading Murakami Haruki before going to bed?

Reading, and Writing

I just finished organizing and dating what turned out to be 15 journals I've written since the summer I came to Japan.














(I just noticed #1 has slid underneath #2, maybe because it's shy. After all, it's the oldest of the bunch.)

Wow. Feels good, and I'm not quite sure why, but I have an idea or few. This is the stuff of stories. This is the basis of a book (or many).

In other news, I'm on page 416 now in Murakami Haruki's "1Q84." I won't say anything about it, though I have some things going on in my mind. Almost time for Book 2! I want to order Book 3 before it comes out next month and I go back to LaLaLand.

Listening to some old Japanese music (as in I got it much earlier in my stay here). It's nice. I'm hungry. I think I'll go eat something.

Box es

Bought two boxes, and got four shipping lables (probably two in case I MESS UP or MAKE A MISTAKE), from the post office today.

I'm listening to Animal Collective's Sung Tongs again after a long, long time which involved me not listening to that album after seeing the music video for Leaf House against recently and remembering what an awesome song that is./I'm ready to go.

I'm feeling weird.

But/And that's okay.

Ahh

When I listen to William DeVaughn's Be Thankful For What You Got, I can clearly recall the feelings of riding in the backseat of the car with one of my parents driving and playing this song on a mix when I was little. I remember not really knowing what 'gangsta whitewalls' were, nor being able to understand quite what he was saying when he said, 'tv antennas in the back.' But I felt some joy when I heard him say, 'You may not have a car at all,' because I could understand that quite clearly and it brought the meaning of the rest of what he was saying but that I couldn't understand together. I still don't know what 'gangsta whitewalls' are, nor can I really pick up what he's saying when he says 'tv..enters..in the back' But man do I love this song.

I also remember that guitar, that unique guitar, when it comes in strongly and matches partially with the vocals, but at the same time is kind of off. I remember always being in awe of that guitar. It made my skin crawl and sent a sense of subtle irritation down me from head to toe because it was so strong and intrusive and didn't exactly fit what it seemed it was trying to fit. At the same time, it did fit, just right, and it raised the energy level of everything and made it sound prettier, too. I still get those feelings listening to the song today. I like that guitar, but I don't really like it. I anticipate its arrival with a sense of almost dread and excitement.

This song is my growing up. It is a part of my childhood so powerful that upon hearing it senses and memories flood back into the front of my consciousness. And you know, looking back at all these songs I was listening to as a child, it's not a wonder I turned out the way I did. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Here it is for your listening pleasure:

Holy

Holy shit, like reeealllly awesome.

Even though...

Even though Lady GaGa's music is way more aggressive and affronting than the laid-back rock of Iwamano Kiyoshiro which I'm listening to now. And therein lies (part of) the awesomeness

Gr

But every time I listen to her for a long time, all my other music seems so gratingly masculine.

Whoa

Oh my gosh, Lady GaGa is awesome! Soo, soo awesome!

I Can't Believe This

Japanese Hip-Hop producer Nujabes dies

I never saw this coming. Holy shit, this guy made such amazing, beautiful music, I can't even believe it. I can't believe he's no longer alive. And only at 36. Why did something like that have to happen?

After reading that, I thought, "Wow, I guess life really is short. It can end at any time. You really have to live, every second, every single moment of it, with all the feeling and love you can. You have to live every moment of your life as it if could end at any time. Because it can."

Sometimes, you just suddenly feel, very, very clearly, the truth that your life could disappear from you at any moment. You understand at a deep, primitive level the quickness and lack of any warning or signal with which your life could wisp away from your body before you even know it. You know truly, then, that you have no control. I felt all that very clearly when I found out that Nujabes had died in a car accident at 36.

I spent so much time listening to his album, Modal Soul, when I was in the depths of some kind of depression I couldn't even grasp in over a year ago's fall and winter. I can clearly recall the feelings of driving in that small, blue car down a dusky, thin, night road, going nowhere, just driving to let myself think, to leave the house that pushed down on me with an oppressive presence, just to get away. Listening to his music alone at night in that car, driving, I somehow was able to diffuse negative feelings into the air around me. Even remembering some parts of that album now pull at my insides, making me feel like crying a bit. I may have even been listening to him that night I pulled over on the side of the road and wanted to cry so badly but couldn't. Maybe that feeling is still somewhere in me. It was something I felt more than once on those drives.

I remember thinking his music was so beautiful and being moved by it when I first heard it. I still have those feelings, and ones like them, when I listen to his music today. I don't know if it "got me through a hard time," or if I just happened to be listening to it when I was going through harsh experiences, but his music penetrated deep into my soul, and it mixed with whatever was going on in it at that time. It's part of my soul's memory, history, now. I'll always feel connected to this album, and to Nujabes's music.

Rest in peace.

Taking ・ Listening

Taking pictures of things you own to put on a for sale flier while listening to Yo La Tengo (Season of the Shark) is strangely boring, yet slightly emotional and cathartic.

Thinking again,

I think the music of transitions may be the most interesting.
Or at least very interesting in its own unique way.

Trans-music: The transition from 20 months in the Japanese countryside to an uncertain Los Angeles is interesting

The soundtrack for this person's transition from 20 months in countryside Japan to open-future Los Angeles includes a lot of Japanese psychedelia (Jacks, Apryl Fool, Happy End, Asakawa Maki), U.S. Oldies (Smokey Robinson, The Matadors, Francisco Aguabella, Skip Mahoney & the Casuals), mariachi (Los Camperos, Vicente Fernández, Pedro Fernández, Javier Solís), and alternative Japanese rock (Friction, Iwamano Kiyoshiro).

Whoa.

Wow.

Atsureki

Oh my gosh, Friction is so cool. And the guitar riff for Cool Fool is sooo good.

According to different accounts I've heard, either the lead singer and bassist of the band, Reck, started it after returning to Japan from New York, where he had been playing No Wave, or as soon as the band formed they went to New York then came back to Japan after a year or two and got big in Japan. In any case, they are awesome.

Unfortunately, I can't find any really good videos for this song on the internet, but all you need really to do is listen, right??!



I'll throw this live video with not so great quality in just for good measure, too.



Oh yeah, this video's pretty cool, too, though the song is different (Crazy Dream). Here's a transcription for what they're talking about in the beginning:
"Are you guys punk?"
"Uh...we don't think of ourselves as punk."
"So what are you."
"Uh...'i don't know.'"



I can't get over how cool these guys are.

I've been listening to nothing but Japanese music lately, actually, mostly from the '60s-'80s. I noticed the other day that I'm getting a lot of inspiration to make some good Chicano/a and/or decolonizing music once I get back to the U.S.

At the end of the last video, the lead singer's talking about how he lives in Tokyo and how the city gives him energy. Then, I think for the most part he's talking about how Tokyo throws away a lot of energy, so the energy hasn't taken off yet, but that he's making that energy take off. (Haha, he uses the word "energy" a lot so it's kind of hard to not do so here, too). He says he's putting out full energy and that people who understand what he's talking about can do it, too. Then, "...Don't you think so?" Haha. I'm not sure what he says at the very end, but it sounds kind of like, "Are you not used to this?" It's so interesting to me how different, yet similar, the singer and other members of the band are when they're playing and when they're giving an interview. Anyways, really interesting stuff to think about and inspiring music.

DODDODO

DODDODO, awesome as always.

I've been listening to a lot of Japanese music lately.

I was surprised I still really like this album

In the Backseat is the best song on Funeral.

Me

Music keeps flowing out of me, and I had a very busy week. It was amazing.

oh

Oh man, Sparks is awesome.

Hey There Lonely Girl

Man, I teared up at the end of this. This song and the way he performs it is just so incredible. This is from only about two years ago, too! Eddie Holman sounds incredible, so perfect, so right on! And I love the way the song wraps itself up and then opens itself back up again for an even more emotional crescendo and finish! I think it's so cool, too, how Eddie Holman, when he finishes hitting that last high note, thanks whatever god or spirit has allowed him to channel that amazing energy into that heavenly sound. Oh man. This has got to be one of the greatest songs ever.