"In one sane minute,
I managed to catch glimpse of the ships of sorrow, sinking,
In a great sea of small hopes, and wine.
In one sane minute,
I could see angles, In the skies,
Above this city. God is not giving up on us, yet.
So, what now?
On my knees, close to the ground, far below the heavens,
Holding you tight.
For now."
-In One Sane Minute, Natasha's Friends (translated from Hebrew by AD)
Well I know I said I'd try and keep things concise, but there has just been too much going on, last few days, so this one may turn into another long rant... apologies for that.
Hmmm, where to begin...
I have been feeling the early seeds of a cold terror creeping up the back of my neck recently.
This is probably a good thing.
One of the residents here in Sakura Apartment, is a man named Damon.
His Japanese is impeccable, he told me his Japanese name was 友剛 (Tomotake) and we had a long chat about his experience in Japan.
Damon has been here for a while now, he has arrived originally as a cultural ambassador with the highly prestigious JET program, and later went through many different companies and positions, teaching English, and trying to establish a singing career in Japan. He did succeed for a while, released one album, and has gained a local celebrity status, but things didn't quite work out in the end, and he is getting ready to leave Japan soon, and return to The States.
I find Damon to be a charming and fascinating person, and his unusual story has intrigued me. I am hoping I can convince him to do a series of interviews with me. I don't know where this project might go, or what it will be a part of, but I want to do it nonetheless.
友剛 - Today is My Day, True to Me, 2009
In other news, please disregard everything I may have wrote in earlier posts about treating other cultures with respect, or basic human courtesy.
We are now on the great plains of the Serengeti, otherwise known as Hanamikoji in Gion district (old Kyoto's traditional entertainment quarter), and we are going on a safari!
The charming wooden shops, decorated with red paper lanterns, and kimono clad ladies strolling down narrow alleyways are all common sites here. Yet, we are not interested in prairie dogs and badgers this fine evening, no.
We are here to hunt down the big cats.
Geisha (or Geiko in regional dialect) & Maiko (apprentice Geisha) are as elusive as they are rare (estimated at less than a thousand in all Japan).
However, I left my moral fibre on the subway, and I may have trampled a baby, but...
I GOT A LIVE ONE!
Other highlights include, a visit to an electronic game arcade.
And an amazing meal at a kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi restaurant) where orders are carried off to your table on small shinkansen trains!
That really is just the tip of the iceberg.
And this is the part where that cold terror kicks in.
All of this sensory splendour has left me feeling a bit like a poor boy, who's just inherited the mansion, and now can't decide what he wants for dinner...
See, where I come from, my work was constrained by the audio/visual poverty of my surroundings.
Back in sleepy town, I'd count myself lucky if I was able to get an interesting police siren or boat horn on tape, and as far as big crowds, or city lights went... well, I guess I just had to learn how to be creative and go without.
Desperation would sometimes lead me to wander into random buildings, in hopes of finding a new elevator tone, just so it could add some dimension and colour to my compositions.
As for this place...
Here EVERYTHING hums and buzzes and dings and cranks and sings. It's incredible really.
Kyoto is a small conservative city by Japanese standards, but just spending one evening on Shijodori, the main business/entertainment strip, I got more, and better quality footage than I did in three years, scrambling around the harbour.
Sound-wise I can probably create a whole body of work, using nothing but sounds I recorded on subway platforms here. It's just too easy, feels like I'm cheating almost... Heck, the other day, I recorded interesting audio AT THE BANK, waiting for the clerks to figure out what a traveler's check is.
Keeping in with the maritime imagery, I feel like I've just lost the anchor, chopped down the wheel, and tossed the compass to the waves. I haven't even been here one week yet, haven't left Kyoto once since I got here, and I already have miles and miles of A material that I don't know what I'll do with.
This is really really great, on one hand. I have so many directions I can go.
But it's also rather terrifying, thinking how much more stuff I might end up with, by the time my stay in Japan is over.
Thanks for reading through!
The Residents - Ship's a Going Down, Not Available, 1974
I managed to catch glimpse of the ships of sorrow, sinking,
In a great sea of small hopes, and wine.
In one sane minute,
I could see angles, In the skies,
Above this city. God is not giving up on us, yet.
So, what now?
On my knees, close to the ground, far below the heavens,
Holding you tight.
For now."
-In One Sane Minute, Natasha's Friends (translated from Hebrew by AD)
Well I know I said I'd try and keep things concise, but there has just been too much going on, last few days, so this one may turn into another long rant... apologies for that.
Hmmm, where to begin...
I have been feeling the early seeds of a cold terror creeping up the back of my neck recently.
This is probably a good thing.
One of the residents here in Sakura Apartment, is a man named Damon.
His Japanese is impeccable, he told me his Japanese name was 友剛 (Tomotake) and we had a long chat about his experience in Japan.
Damon has been here for a while now, he has arrived originally as a cultural ambassador with the highly prestigious JET program, and later went through many different companies and positions, teaching English, and trying to establish a singing career in Japan. He did succeed for a while, released one album, and has gained a local celebrity status, but things didn't quite work out in the end, and he is getting ready to leave Japan soon, and return to The States.
I find Damon to be a charming and fascinating person, and his unusual story has intrigued me. I am hoping I can convince him to do a series of interviews with me. I don't know where this project might go, or what it will be a part of, but I want to do it nonetheless.
友剛 - Today is My Day, True to Me, 2009
In other news, please disregard everything I may have wrote in earlier posts about treating other cultures with respect, or basic human courtesy.
We are now on the great plains of the Serengeti, otherwise known as Hanamikoji in Gion district (old Kyoto's traditional entertainment quarter), and we are going on a safari!
The charming wooden shops, decorated with red paper lanterns, and kimono clad ladies strolling down narrow alleyways are all common sites here. Yet, we are not interested in prairie dogs and badgers this fine evening, no.
We are here to hunt down the big cats.
Geisha (or Geiko in regional dialect) & Maiko (apprentice Geisha) are as elusive as they are rare (estimated at less than a thousand in all Japan).
However, I left my moral fibre on the subway, and I may have trampled a baby, but...
I GOT A LIVE ONE!
Other highlights include, a visit to an electronic game arcade.
And an amazing meal at a kaitenzushi (conveyor belt sushi restaurant) where orders are carried off to your table on small shinkansen trains!
That really is just the tip of the iceberg.
And this is the part where that cold terror kicks in.
All of this sensory splendour has left me feeling a bit like a poor boy, who's just inherited the mansion, and now can't decide what he wants for dinner...
See, where I come from, my work was constrained by the audio/visual poverty of my surroundings.
Back in sleepy town, I'd count myself lucky if I was able to get an interesting police siren or boat horn on tape, and as far as big crowds, or city lights went... well, I guess I just had to learn how to be creative and go without.
Desperation would sometimes lead me to wander into random buildings, in hopes of finding a new elevator tone, just so it could add some dimension and colour to my compositions.
As for this place...
Here EVERYTHING hums and buzzes and dings and cranks and sings. It's incredible really.
Kyoto is a small conservative city by Japanese standards, but just spending one evening on Shijodori, the main business/entertainment strip, I got more, and better quality footage than I did in three years, scrambling around the harbour.
Sound-wise I can probably create a whole body of work, using nothing but sounds I recorded on subway platforms here. It's just too easy, feels like I'm cheating almost... Heck, the other day, I recorded interesting audio AT THE BANK, waiting for the clerks to figure out what a traveler's check is.
Keeping in with the maritime imagery, I feel like I've just lost the anchor, chopped down the wheel, and tossed the compass to the waves. I haven't even been here one week yet, haven't left Kyoto once since I got here, and I already have miles and miles of A material that I don't know what I'll do with.
This is really really great, on one hand. I have so many directions I can go.
But it's also rather terrifying, thinking how much more stuff I might end up with, by the time my stay in Japan is over.
Thanks for reading through!
The Residents - Ship's a Going Down, Not Available, 1974
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