the) BODY of) EARTH
Not sure I ever shared the video that Irish filmmaker Richard Grehan made to accompany the photobook I made with the outstandingly creative whirling dervish Kate E Deeming last year in Shibuya. (I wrote about it a little last year) That was such an amazing night.
Filmed by Richard Grehan, Music Douglas Lee.
In April 2008 Performance Artist/Filmmaker Kate E. Deeming created the character “Body Earth”, as a physical representation of Mother Earth. She then crawled on hands and knees in Shibuya, at Hachiko Crossing, Tokyo, (the busiest crossing in the world) in between the pedestrians as a way of drawing attention to the missing consideration of the physical human dimension in all of our chats about “this environmental crisis”. Martine Cotton, photographer and Richard Grehan, filmmaker, joined her on this exploration to document the ‘performance’. The photos contained in this volume were not staged, but taken documentary style over the course of the Saturday evening. They serve as a potent reminder to our personal responsibility towards the nurturance of the planet. Created in response to Earth Day.
The book is available for purchase at BLURB. You know you wanna….
**A percentage of the proceeds of this book will be donated to the Glasgow Women’s Library
Shannonvale Sunset
Post cyclonic sunsets are often spectacular. This is what we saw yesterday evening, after Cyclone Hamish kicked his clouds across the skies of Port Douglas. (The new Lumix has a lovely video feature that I haven’t made enough use of yet.)
I hope that Cyclone Hamish, now at category 5 (as strong as Hurricane Katrina) and being classed a 30 year storm, does not make land. That would be just devastating. Lordy, Australia is really having a tough year. Fires, floods, earthquakes, shark attacks, croc attacks, cyclones.
Priscilla Ahn
Some prettiness for you on this chilly autumn weekend. I can’t get enough of Priscilla Ahn. Such a gorgeous voice. Enjoy!
[update 1: link fixed]
[update 2: My friend Matt just pointed out that Priscilla is playing 2 gigs in Tokyo and a show in Osaka in a couple of weeks. Ha, fabulous! I’m going to go to the show on the 29th (November) since I’m already planning to go to my buddy Mihoko’s show on the 30th in Shimokitazawa.
Who’s comin’ with me?
James Nachtway highlights Extreme Drug Resistant TB
I love James Nachtway, he’s such an amazing photographer. These are his photos.
Powerful stuff. I have had a lot of personal dealings with TB this year, with one friend (young, fit, healthy 25-ish year old German fella) very sick with it and confined to a quarantine floor in a special ward in Shinjuku for many months and his also quite healthy British girlfriend contracting it – but not actively sick with it – and under such strong meds that her liver is in a seriously sick state. They had to take her off the meds this week because her liver was reacting so badly. You are supposed to take them for 12 months…. The Germans bandmate also contracted it too. Another healthy young man.
I have heard a lot of startling facts about this seemingly ancient disease that show that it is indeed experiencing a major revival. Here are some facts:
* As of 2006, approximately 30,000 people have TB in Japan, with around 3,000 people dying yearly (WHO statistics)
* Britain’s figures, with a population about half of Japan, are about 10,000 & 1,000 respectively.
* Approximately one third of the world’s population has TB (Scary fact!)
* However, tuberculosis is only infectious when it is active (ie reaches the lungs)
* And only 5~10% of people with tuberculosis become sick or infectious.
* Symptoms of active TB are coughing for more than 2 weeks; phlegm; fatigue & chest pain
21/365: July 26 2008
Awesome band, Golden, playing at Club Lizard in Motomachi Chukagai (Yokohama Chinatown) for Sandi & Jeff’s official sayonara party (organised by Mackey Ramone and the Buzz Buzz gang). A big night. I crawled into Jeff & Sandi’s bed to pass out in peace at about 3 am (the house party went all night) and woke up the next morning to find Sandi on one side and a little Japanese girl I’d never seen before curled up next to my feet – I had to do a triple take to make sure it wasn’t Jeff wearing a dress…
If you get a chance to see Golden play, do it. They are really interesting, and any band that can rock out with a mandolin deserves some attention.
Technorati Tags: a photo a day
We think.
Thought-provoking indeed, at a time when I’m trying to build a new career. “How do we make a living when everyone is freely sharing their ideas . . . ” via Jackanory. Be sure to visit the Youtube page and read the comments.
The new Al Gore slideshow.
In Al Gore’s brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of “generational mission” — the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement — to set it right. Gore’s stirring presentation is followed by a Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates’ climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future. (Recorded March 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 27:54.)
Important stuff.
To build a home…
This song has been on iPod repeat all day today. I’m such a sucker for achingly beautiful melancholy, and this song is superb. Clear the decks. Sit down. Close your eyes and soak it up.
There is a house built out of stone
Wooden floors, walls and window sills
Tables and chairs worn by all of the dust
This is a place where I don’t feel alone
This is a place where I feel at home
And I built a home
For you
For me
Until it disappeared
From me
From you
And now, it’s time
To live
And time
To die
I’m in the garden where we planted the seeds
There is a tree as old as me
Branches were sewn by the colour of green
Ground had arose in past its knees
By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top
I climbed the tree to see the world
When the gusts came around to blow me down
Held on as tightly as you held on me
Held on as tightly as you held on me
And I built a home
For you
For me
Until it disappeared
From me
From you
And now, it’s time
To live
And time
To die
The Cinematic Orchestra – To Build a Home.
This is where I live…..
Found MylesInLondon via Japundit. He makes beautiful videos. Think he captures Tokyo exceptionally well. These pieces are all short, and well worth watching.
PS – Bree in Vancouver, I love ya. What a lovely surprise! Thank you so much, the book is amazing and terrifying at the same time! A veritable text book. Really excited about sinking my teeth into it.
The Roadtrip
Hello friends, are you still with me? I know it’s been a while but it only seems like a few days! So. I’m in Tokyo, nestling back into my cosy little house with a new vegie cookbook, a million chores to catch up on, fresh Kaldi coffee in the fridge and my full iTunes library. I got back on Tuesday, during a remarkably mild period – it was 12.5 degrees that day, but the coming forecasts scare me and I think I feel a healthy hibernation coming on. I’m back at work, eating well, avoiding alcohol and considering a detox.
2007 was a fantastic year for me, I have to say, although it did have the odd sour point too. Spending the past 6 or so weeks with my family and getting to catch up with so many old friends and family members during the Australian holiday was such a momentous occasion. The trip was important on so many levels, and I will be sharing many of the highlights with you over the coming weeks as I trawl through the photos and dig through my beer-soaked memory files.
In the mean time, please feel free to check out this ROADTRIP slideshow I made testing the slideshow generator at animoto. It’s made up of photos taken during the roadtrip I took from Mossman, in far north Queensland, to Maroochydore in the states south-east – a distance of around 1800 km. I had this idea about making a roadtrip slideshow after watching the awesome video Michael Gondry made of a cross-USA road trip. Of course, his video is way more awesome and well-planned than this little kindergarten piece… but I have to say I’m pretty happy with animoto – it’s a rather nifty little service though the photos seem to have degraded a little and maybe even been made a little fuzzy (?).
They told me I needed a long, legal song so I chose one of my favourite old songs – The Day Everything… – from the fabulous Rival Flight (a great band I used to manage) since I doubt they’ll sue me for copyright infringement. It’s a little dramatic but I like the effect and I think it makes for a nice little first slideshow video attempt.
Just remember, it’s 8:49 minutes of your life that you’ll never get back 
Oh, and I put a handful of new holiday pics up at Flickr. More to come.
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche
Toru
Shion
Tamaki
Last week I met up with MissSin, Sandi, Ma-Chan, Su-san (my India travel buddy) and my new room mate, (Canadian) Greg to go to the Psysalia Psysalis Psyche gig at the Chelsea Hotel in Shibuya. PPP are a hot, new-ish, as-yet-unsigned Tokyo band. Their music is a kinda chaotic, eclectic blend of all sorts of influences (punk, screamo, jazz, rock, indie, post-rock, etc). It’s very good. It was an hilarious night – Sandi wrote about it here (with some of my happy snaps). I have put some of the show pics up on Flickr. Still editing and posting so check back there in a few days to see more. I’m really, really happy with the pics I got that night.
Been busy – Fuku-chan, my room mate, left for Berlin early this morning so we’ve been busy packing her up and sorting out all the administrivia required…. (and throwing out truckloads of crap from the house). We had a lovely sayonara dinner last night with Kat and Darin (no, baby’s not here yet [Oct 13?] and yes, they are doing well), and Sumika at Peppermint Cafe, and then late night wines at Moskow. It was kinda amusing to think that the following night Fuku would be in the real Moscow! Anyway, Greg-the-Canadian-microbiologist moves in this evening. Ch-ch-changes.
Have another 2 days off thanks to the school festival, very cool to have a kind of 5 day weekend – although I have been teaching some privates and generally “working” at home. So it hasn’t been particularly restful. Looking forward to some catch up get-togethers with people I haven’t seen much of recently over the next few days. Gonna try to finish Midnight’s Children, too – it’s so hard to just settle in and read a book sometimes. It’s such an great read, I really wanna finish it but there have been so many stupid distractions lately.
I got a delightfully mysterious email from an anonymous group of friends calling themselves FCOM. They seem to be planning to take me away for a 3 day weekend around the time of my next birthday (end of November). Thank you to whoever you are. I am most excited.
Angus and Julia Stone
My favourite Australian music act of the moment (probably of the year, actually). Listen to these beautiful voices and weep. They have a website here and myspace here. I really really hope they make it to Japan soon.
In other news, this Friday @ the Liquid Room the mighty Mono play with the even mightier Envy. I’m *so* there.
From Lee Ranaldo & Leah Singer to Pete Murray: a day of musical diversity
I was lucky enough yesterday to catch the enthralling visual/soundcsape show, DRIFT, by Sonic Youth-er Lee Ranaldo and his film making wife, Leah Singer at Super Deluxe. Lee really is a master of the art of sonic sound and feedback – he spent most of the gig doing crazy stuff with his guitar and an array of toys and CD’s, including wandering around the stage waving his guitar in the air at the various amps, amongst other stuff. The sound was surprisingly beautiful. The accompanying visuals provided live by Leah Singer on 2 16 mm film projectors added an intoxicating edge to the show. He also did some spoken word prose and poetry including a tingling piece called The Box, about his personal experiences after 9/11. [am I sounding like a complete wanker? ;p]
Anyway, here’s the official spiel:
DRIFT is an immersive sonic/visual environment consisting of music, sounds and texts by Ranaldo in response to two 16mm analytical film projectors performed in real time by Singer. Much as a DJ scratches a vinyl record, Singer manipulates her films in a live improvisation with Ranaldo’s guitar, poetry and soundscapes.
If you get a chance to catch this show some time, check it out. It’s great. (Thanks to Jane for dragging me along!)
And then I went to Shibuya for a show at the opposite end of the musical spectrum. My dear old mate Pete Murray finally played in Tokyo this week. It was great to see him play again, especially in his solo acoustic mode which is pretty much the way I remember him from the early days before super-stardom in Australia. He’s off to Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima this week, but will be back at the end of the week with 4 days off. We’ll get to hang out properly then. Yay. He’s good people, he is. Shame this is such a crappy pic.
Envy
Envy in Shimokitazawa.
Mike, Planes Mistaken for Stars. I told ya they was hairy.
Timbo and Phil after the show at an Okonomoyaki bar
Friday night Envy played in Shimokitazawa as part of a hardcore night that included American bands Converge [Hardcore 101: the yawnfest] and Planes Mistaken for Stars and local band Drumkan (who I missed). As boring as Converge were (being the granddaddies of the hardcore scene, playing the most generic hardcore with the only intelligible lyrics being ‚Äúfark fuk fuk FUUUUCKKKKK fark fuk fuk fuk‚Äù over and over again), they were still kinda fun to watch for about three songs…. Their American tourmates PMFS kicked some serious hardcore rock ass. The show was great and I think they get points for being the hairiest band I’ve seen in yonks.
A night out at the Tokyo Blue Note Club
On Tuesday afternoon I got an email from my friend Lisa asking me if I was interested in going to the Blue Note to see a band called the SF Jazz Collective. She is friends with Eric Harland, the drummer, and he was giving her 2 guest passes. Kinda a big deal at the Blue Note, where tickets are usually around ¥9 Р10 000 ($90 Р100). Always up for an adventure, I said yes, despite my disdain for over-priced, uptight, unfriendly, stuffy, pretentious venues and their clientele, and for the cliquey Jazz world in general [hmmm, does that make me a snob in reverse?]. I figured these guys would probably be pretty good, and I needed a dose of something western.
They were great. They played their own individually composed pieces, based on/inspired by Thelonious Monk, and it was some very cool, kick ass jazz. The drink prices weren’t as scary as I’d expected (I paid around ¬•800 for a glass of house white), and the sound was excellent. Afterwards, we went drinking with Eric, his cousin – the trombonist Andre and the bassist, Matt (A NZer) at the Blue Note and then some other jazz venue nearby called Body and Soul.
The Mama-san there fell over herself to provide the guys free booze and food and managed to not look at me or Lisa once, and the other J-women who joined us there were kinda the same – interested only in very loud and blatant self-promotion and flirting with the hot band dudes. One was a kind of jazz promoter and the other an aspiring singer. Neither of them could take their eyes off Eric. It was funny, and was oh, so eerily familiar [life before Japan]. I left that place after one beer and made my way to the last train, and then got a phone call from Andre, Eric and Matt (via Lisa) asking me to come back and hang out coz “I was so nice‚Äù. I declined. But it was nice to hear, since they were such nice fella’s themselves. I couldn’t have coped with any more of the fawning they were being subjected to.
What is it about Jazz dudes that they always have to shave their heads and grow goatee’s? The entire band, except for Matt the bassist and the female pianist, had shaved heads…
A fun, interesting night indeed.
Maria Cross Part 2
Remember back in September 2005, I posted my first real video to the site. It was a clip of a young fella banging his crazy head to some awesome wacked out avante garde punk music. Well, I’ve seen him a few times since then. I was lucky enough to run past him in Shinjuku last week, at exactly the same place I filmed him last time, 2 years ago. So, of course, I had to film him again. After I wrote that first post, I got an email from a guy who told me that the performers name is Maria Cross, and that he is a guy – I had mistakenly written that he was a girl. Anyway, I put that first clip up on youtube too…the quality is pretty crappy though.
And now, I must step away from the computer and enjoy some Joan as Policewoman.
Arab Strap’s last ever show – the video!
One of my all time favourite bands, Arab Strap (from Scotland) played their last ever show as part of a secret tour of Tokyo in December 2006. Yes folks, they have now finished. So sad. It was a great night, and you can see pics here. There were a lot of people who had travelled from all over the world for this show, and real tears in the last few songs.
The above movie is actually edited…. the below aren’t. It includes mostly clips of the spoken parts of the gig, including the bit where Aiden took off his shoes because ‚Äúit was the end of the road‚Äù. I used my Canon Powershot G3 and was a wee bit tipsy after drinkin’ with the band and MissSin and some crazy couple who had flown all the way from my hometown of Brisbane before the show, so the camerawork is well dodgy.
My first foray into Youtube caused only a slight headache. All future attempts will now be a piece of piss (erm, that’s Australian for ‚Äúvery easy‚Äù).
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Yes, the guests have all gone. The washing is done. The rubbish bins are empty. The house is clean. The jewellery, toiletries and undies drawers have been cleaned out. My desk has been sorted through and the random piles of crap have been assigned new, more relevant homes…. And I still have another week of holiday time (apart from the odd private class). I’ve made a start on the inbox, got a great to-do list ready to go and am in de-tox health & fitness mode. Although I’m quite sure that Kat’s B’day party tomorrow night will ruin the good work I’ve put in over the past few days ;p. Anyway, I’m really enjoying this laid back time – getting lots done and still wasting hours on the net…. The heaters getting a beating, as are my music speakers….
This is the music that’s been brightening my world lately. Thought I’d share it.
Technorati Tags: music
The latest Music Meme: The iTunes shuffle interview
Looking out a late night Chuo train window at another late night Chuo train….
I’ve been tagged for a meme which I first saw on sushizume and then on sigsy in tokyo and then – where the actual baton-passing happened, on J-Sters fabbo new look (and new link?) threads of gold.
The task?:
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.
No cheating! (anyone else wanna have a go?)
Some cool shows coming through…
These sexy lads in skirts are Arab Strap: one of my all-time favourite bands.
Well it’s been a crappy, rainy 10 degree Sunday here in Tokes, which actually was a very good thing because it made staying in bed with my mammoth hangover completely guiltfree. I vaguely remember being dinked on the back of a bike through Kichijoji and getting my heel caught in the spokes, forcing forward motion into a kinda slow sideways crash – not once but twice. The driver was equally as drunk and, well, it was a hilarious ride. But enough of that. I’ve been checking out the Tokyo Gig Guide which has some GREAT shows listed for the coming months!
JuggsVSJapan: front back and sides…
My very very ace old friend and former music colleague, Justin Dee (aka Juggs) and his partner Evette stayed at my place for a few weeks, and reluctantly packed up their mouldy futons a few days ago to head back to the Gold Coast. I have mentioned their regular shopping spree trips in other posts (they are both avid collectors and their impressive collection of dolls and character figures would put the 40 year old virgin to shame) but this trip was actually fueled by an even greater passion.
Technorati Tags: documentaries, friends, japan, kichijoji, portraits, streets, tokyo, video
Indian Love Song made me cry
Last night The Dirty Three played their second Tokyo show. Oh what a night!
The Dirty Three are still, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest live bands in the world. They played a cool mix of old and new, and the moment they started the sprawling epic Indian Love Song (second song in) I felt the earth warp and twist and suddenly I was standing at the Zoo in Brisbane and it was all another time and another place and I was surrounded by old friends on a steamy hot tropical summers eve and…well, it was all a bit emotional. But that’s what the Dirty Three do. Dramatic, emotional, powerful stuff. And man, they rocked. My ears are still ringing…
