In
New York, drummers have to bring their own snare drum, cymbals and
stands whenever they want to play a club; it's a lot of shit to carry,
and it usually requires a van to haul it in. In Tokyo, all you need
to bring are a pair of drumsticks!
Most drummers bring a snare drum too though, because the club's snare
tends to be crappy. Dig it!
Guitarists
just need to bring their guitars and some effects gear; no amps or
heads required, although you could bring 'em if you wanted to. At
Narciss the other night, one of the bands' guitarists was playing
through a little 20-watt Marshall combo, miked into the P.A. (all
the instruments get miked through the P.A., and thus EQ'd evenly and
mixed really nice.)
Yesterday
was really hot and humid... time to crank the ea con (air conditioner)!
And Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ airs on Mondays, just like it
did five years ago, and just like it does in New York (on Ch. 63...
or 73?) I wonder if Pop Jam is on Sunday nights still? Not
that they'll ever so anything good ever again, it's all 13-year-old
girl groups and flatulent hip-hop tripe nowadays. <toothless geezer
voice>: Why, back in my day, entertainers actually used gee-tars
when they performed!
Other
TV-ish coolness that goes a long way towards illustrating my encroaching
octagenarianism: I got excited when, on Monday afternoon, I discovered
BS-1 airing a recent episode of This Week with Sam Donaldson and
Cokie Roberts (one of those Sunday political shows). Cokie is
cool. Any halfway intelligent chick named Cokie would be!
I'm
also in the process of getting my U.S. passport renewed; it expires
after 10 years. Fortunately, outside the U.S. I can take care of the
renewal in the mail... although I called a week ago today for the
forms and they still haven't arrived yet... ugh, can you tell this
is just gonna be a complete hassle yet?!
And
finally, I went out and bought some food on my one. Typical Japanese
bachelor chow: spaghetti noodles, tomato sauce, curry mix, canned
fruit, ramen, and cola. My mother-in-law makes some awesome dishes,
but when I miss dinner or oversleep or wake-up hungover, I need some
back-up stuff that I can make and digest easily (trying unusual new
foods when hungover is a major no-no)!
And
by the way, Japanese people don't get hangovers! Some enzyme they
have helps them break down the alcohol and process it really quickly,
so no hangovers. The trade-off is that, pound-for-pound, they get
drunk faster. Which isn't so bad either, now that I think about it.
Also,
in Japan, there's none of the taboo-osity behind drinking and drunkeness
that we have in America. In fact, getting sloshed together builds
camaraderie among coworkers. My first day at work in Japan, back in
1996, my manager asks right off the bat, "So, you like to drink?"
Kinda threw me for a loop! In New York, if a boss asked that, you'd
say "No, what am I, a drunkard?!" but here, the proper answer
is "Yes, of course, I'm a team-player!" That's kinda cool,
I think.
All
that handed-down from Biblical times Judeo-Christian kinda stuff (booze
is bad, sex is bad, etc.) doesn't really exist here. History here
is completely different -- no religious wars or anythin'. Of course,
hand-in-hand with that is the fact that European tradition encourages
individuality and independence, while Japan encourages the whole group-thing.
And as a foreigner, my "group" is far away, so I have to
establish new group memberships -- with company co-workers, with fellow
j-rockers, etc.
Getting
in the outer-circle of a group is pretty easy -- I'm a novelty to
a lot of people -- but I'll never be able to get in the innermost
circle. "Hafu" (halfs -- i.e., half-japanese half-something
else) who've lived here there whole lives, speak the language, no
every custom and behavior... even they can't make that innermost circle,
or so I hear.
"And
that's one to grow on!" <insert dorky flying NBC logo here>
<<<prev
/ next>>>
