The great thing about being retired for me:
ASTERISM
On X I saw ASTERISM and DR. CAPITAL are having a gig at Kyoto live house KYOTO MOJO that is practically in my own backyard. Not that I have been there before. I booked my ticket the day after it was announced.
AND close by O.C.Burito , that has food that is something of a novelty to me as I am not an AMERICAN, and haven't even tried the Burrito yet. Been there twice, and a third time sounds good, it is in a B1 food court, OPEN 11:00~22:00(L.O 21:00).
Been aware of ASTERISM for some time. The guitar chops of HAL-CA, the guitarist are something else, and the brothers bass MIYU and drums MIO match her. Skill and technique, but not sure what "voice" they have though, even after playing their Spotify Playlists.
A 2024 LA gig somewhat like this is what I am expecting, except a very different crowd...
Part of the PLANET OF METAL tour, where they did an illustrated 7 track Album with a Japanese Illustrator known as Acky Bright. Acky Bright illustrations show ASTERISM members battling numerous monsters with the album songs based on the illustrations.
A double gig with YouTuber and academic Dr.Captial. He can sure play and sing, but not sure what kind of show he will do, as 95% of what he seems to do is JPOP covers, and teaching about the songs.
Calling himself Dr.Metal for this gig. Probably a good thing. Expect anything he plays will be very well done, what ever it is.
First I learned about him was on the often weeaboo UNPACKING JAPAN YouTube channel, and found him interesting. Seen some of his channel, but his interactions with Marty Freidman on ROCK FUJIYAMA and his passion and technique for Brazilian Acoustic guitar was what really caught my attention. He can play 3 independent parts simultaneously, and discuss it all.
The gig is 5 days away now. I expect to be the oldest person there by a wide margin, even though I don't look it. On NHK this Sunday morning there was a news item on a city in some prefecture I don't remember, putting on a music performance/show for "over 65 seniors". That is me, but it wasn't the kind of show I would want to go to!
The First Lady Prime Minister of Japan
And big local news is Japan will have her first female Prime Minister. She beat the nepotism that was trying to install the idiot son of a former Prime Minister, of the same party, and the same party that has been in charge for decades here. A follower of the recently assassinated Abe. She is the one my wife and own kids barracked for with her "don't let the foreigners in Japan take advantage of us" views.
If I mention "that may have a bad impact on me too, you know...", she says "they don't mean good foreigners like you". Time will tell. I am a self funded retiree, so don't get any pension or such government money and pay for my own health insurance, so guess any regulation changes she makes to stop the "reported" foreigner abuses (from the Chinese and Turkish?) will not impact me at all.
Right Wing propaganda everywhere says undeserving foreigners coming in are get big payouts that local citizens don't. This stuff is always untrue, but don't know about the Japanese case, but expect it too is untrue.
Dreaming Japanese
Almost through Marty Friedmans book. Mmm. Can't say the first half is a "fun" read... probably more "I really didn't need to know that", even if his remarkable talent as a guitarist came out then. Worries a lot about his hair and image. There is a YouTube episode of The Captain Meets Marty Friedman on Andertons UK music channel where The Captain is surprised he loved a very lowbrow crude UK cartoon. Even had the cartoon character on the back of his guitar pics.
It picks up after that though. His getting to Japan and making a living is a very different journey than my own (I came here as a degree holding electronics design engineer with a Japanese wife and son, and industry cred).
My sister in law is a big fan of Marty, but she didn't even know he was a musician. Just an interesting テレビ外人芸能人 ,which for many of them, is like having a talking dog as a cast member of the TV show. Marty is very aware of this but also knows that is how he makes his real living now, and funds his music career, he gets to dip into regularly with his own band. I have never seen any of his TV appearances. But I also don't watch any Japanese variety TV, remember clearly the low opinion of it the other Japanese Engineers I worked with had of it.
I have just seen some of his later YouTube Rock Fujiyama episodes.
He is passionate for JPOP and other Japanese music, and that helped him a lot in his music career in Japan. He says his TV talent life has forced him to grow as a person and that could only be a good thing.
I think having a skill and passion that has commercial application in Japan is the key for non Japanese living and working in Japan, along with language ability. Any Japanese kid from school does Japanese.
We can be found at ArtAndTechnology
No comments:
Post a Comment